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Sanderson, Donald McWilliam

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Personal Information

Rank F/L
Forename(s) Donald McWilliam
Surname Sanderson
Gender M
Age 24
Date of Death 21-02-1945
Next of Kin Son of Albert Watson Sanderson and Mary Clare Sanderson (née McWilliam), of Haileybury, Ontario.
SANDERSON DM

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Handley Page Halifax VII
Serial Number NP711
Markings EQ-O

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country Germany
Burial/Memorial Place Rheinberg War Cemetery
Grave Reference Coll. grave 18. G. 2-5.
Epitaph

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 2
Panel Number 237

Enlistment Information

Service Number J/29724
Service Royal Canadian Air Force
Group 6
Squadron 408 (Goose)
Squadron Motto For freedom
Trade Pilot
Country of Origin Canada

Other Memorials

Location Village Centre, Linton on Ouse, North Yorkshire
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Stone Memorial and inscribed slate tablet
Memorial Text In memory of 408 (Goose) and 426 (Thunderbird) Squadrons of R.C.A.F
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Miscellaneous Information

Donald was born in Toronto on 7 February 1921, the son of Albert Watson Sanderson and Mary Clare Sanderson (née McWilliam), of Haileybury, Ontario. His father was a Jeweller and was born in Arillia, Ontario and his mother was born in Guelph. He attended Haileybury Public school 1928-1935 followed by Haileybury High 1935-1941. He passed both Junior and Senior Matric. Donald enjoyed hunting, swimming, fishing and curling and his hobbies were reading and building model aircraft. He was in the 2nd, Batn. Canadian Army (R) at Haileybury from March 1940-April 1941. He worked as an attendant at a Service Station for about a year and also a short spell as a taxi driver.
Donald enlisted on 16 June 1941 and after early training he was sent to the U.K. He arrived at 3 PRC on 20 October 1943, 14(P) AFU 22 February 1944, 61 Base 26 July 1944, 1666CU 16 October 1944 and 408 Squadron on 7 December 1944.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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Fellow Servicemen

Please note that this list gives all the losses aboard the quoted aircraft and occasionally these may have occurred on an earlier date when the aircraft was not itself lost. Please check the dates of death carefully.

Anderson N P H (P/O)
Gilmore W J (F/O)
Sherman D E (P/O)
Smith R B (F/O)
Wagner W W (P/O)
Wilson J (Sgt)

Last Operation Information

Start Date 21-02-1945
End Date 22-02-1945
Takeoff Station Linton-on-Ouse
Day/Night Raid Night (77% moon)
Operation Worms. 349 aircraft, 11 losses. The only large raid on this town of the war. 1116 tons of high explosives were dropped and the town was said to be 39% destroyed. 64% of the buildings were destroyed including the cathedral and many municipal and cultural buildings. 239 people were killed and 35000 bombed out (from a population of just 58000)

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Casualty Pack

IBCC is delighted to introduce a unique facility to link the Losses Database to the relevant RAF Casualty Pack on the National Archives website. This project is the result of on-going collaboration between IBCC, the MOD Records Office and National Archives, Kew. This document describes what Casualty Packs are, when they were created, the process of making them available to the public and then goes on to describe the process by which you can view the contents of the packs. Casualty Packs (CPs) were created by the RAF whenever there was serious injury or loss of life associated with operational activity within the RAF. This includes operational flying losses, enemy action due to air raids, road accidents either on station or even off-station if they involved RAF vehicles. Deaths due to natural causes in service or accidents that did not involve RAF vehicles did not generally give rise to a CP.

CPs were originally given a unique reference number by the RAF. Each begins with the letter ‘P’ and is followed by six digits, then an oblique (forward slash) and the finally the year in which the incident took place- for example P396154/42.

The CPs are in the process of being made available to the general public as they are passed from the MOD Records Office, Portsmouth to National Archives, Kew. This process requires some rework to the files which is very time consuming, so the process of making them all available to National Archives will take several years. They are being made available in increasing date order.

Once CPs arrive at National Archives they are assigned a unique AIR81 number, so each CP has both a P-number and an AIR81 number. Both are searchable on the National Archives website under ‘Search the catalogue’ and both are included on the IBCC website.

The AIR81 reference on the IBCC website is a link to the file on the National Archives website. When you click on it, the relevant page will open in a new tab on your browser.

There is currently no plan to digitise AIR81 files, partly because they are fragile and partly because the information they contain can at times be sensitive, even harrowing, since they may contain exhumation reports and even photographs of corpses. Family members wishing to read the AIR81 files relating to their ancestors are advised to exercise caution and be guided by National Archives warnings where appropriate.

There are two means for accessing AIR81 files- to attend in person or to order a copy by post.

To attend in person, the attendee should first create a Reader’s Ticket. This can be done online by following this link: https://secure.nationalarchives.gov.uk/login/yourdetails. Then click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and click Order in Advance. Enter your Reader’s Ticket number and state the date on which you intend to visit. National Archives will have the file ready for you when you arrive, saving you time. When you visit Kew, you must quote the Reader’s Ticket number and take along two forms of ID- one bearing your signature and one bearing your address. When you view the files, you are permitted to take photographs of each page, should you wish.

Alternatively, if you wish to order a copy by post, please be aware that there is a charge for this service based on the number of pages in the file. Click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and then click Request a Copy. There is an £8.40 charge for National Archives staff to access the file and give you a quotation for the copying service. The process takes around 24 days to complete and can be expensive.

IBCC wishes to thank the staff at the MOD Records Office and National Archives for their engagement and assistance in making this facility available to our website users.