EDWARD HARRY FREDERICK ATKINSON
SERVICE NO. 424961
Royal Air Force: Flight Sergeant
Royal New Zealand Air Force
620 Squadron, Royal Air Force
DIED: 06 June 1944
AGE: 22
NATIONALITY: New Zealander
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
He was a crew member in Stirling Mk.IV EF295, 620 Squadron, Royal Air Force (RAF).
They took off at 23:45 on the night of 5 June 1944 from RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire to transport parachutists of 591 Parachute Squadron, 6th Airborne Division to a drop zone east of the River Orne for Operation Tonga (the landings by 6th Airborne Division on D-Day).
But the aircraft was hit by German anti-aircraft fire and crashed eight miles east of the drop zone near Château de Grangues, Grangues, Calvados before it could drop the parachutists. He was killed in the crash.
MEMORIAL LOCATION: Column 13
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