John Dering Nettleton

Squadron Leader John Dering Nettleton was awarded the Victoria Cross for leading one of the most audacious daylight raids of the early war. He was born on 28 June 1917 at Nongoma in Natal, South Africa, a grandson of the Royal Navy admiral A. T. D. Nettleton. After training as a naval cadet aboard the South African training ship General Botha and a spell in the merchant marine, he came to Britain and was commissioned into the Royal Air Force in December 1938.

Flying with No. 44 Squadron — the first squadron to convert to the [[Avro Lancaster]] — Nettleton led the famous Augsburg raid of 17 April 1942. Twelve Lancasters from Nos. 44 and 97 Squadrons attacked the MAN diesel-engine works at Augsburg in Bavaria at rooftop height in broad daylight, a round trip of some 1,250 miles deep into enemy territory. German fighters and flak destroyed seven of the aircraft, but Nettleton pressed on to bomb the target and brought his battered Lancaster home. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for the operation.

Nettleton was killed on the night of 12/13 July 1943, shot down over the Bay of Biscay while returning from a raid on Turin. He was 26 and has no known grave; he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.