John Easton McFall

Flight Lieutenant John Easton McFall (service number 40181) was a pilot in the Royal Air Force who served with No. 6 Squadron during the North African campaign, flying army co-operation and tactical reconnaissance missions from within the besieged Tobruk perimeter in the spring of 1941. Operating the Westland Lysander — a slow, ungainly aircraft never designed for combat — he displayed conspicuous gallantry on at least two occasions that brought him to official notice: during one sortie he located an enemy formation and then put his aircraft down beside Allied gun batteries in order to direct their fire in person, and on a separate mission he and his air gunner shot down a Junkers Ju 52 transport, a feat credited as the only air-combat victory ever achieved by a Lysander crew. His Distinguished Flying Cross was gazetted on 6 June 1941, and the subsequent award of a Bar acknowledged a sustained record of determination and skill; the DFC and Bar together confirm a pattern of distinguished service across multiple operations. McFall was killed in action on 15 June 1941 — the opening day of Operation Battleaxe, the British offensive to relieve Tobruk and recapture the Halfaya Pass — while flying Hurricane I V7769, having converted to that type as the squadron re-equipped in mid-1941. He was twenty-six years old, the son of James Louis and Ruby McFall, and the husband of Pamela Mary McFall. He is buried at Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery, Egypt, in Plot 8, Row G, Grave 3.