Henry Paul Brancker

Henry Paul Brancker was born around 1912 in the Four Oaks district of Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, the son of Henry and Winifred Caroline Brancker. He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and flew Bristol Blenheim IV twin-engine bombers, serving first with No. 18 Squadron, with which his gallantry in operations earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross, gazetted on 18 July 1941. He subsequently moved to No. 114 Squadron, based at RAF West Raynham in Norfolk, which was then engaged in low-level intruder and bombing raids over occupied Europe. On 27 December 1941 he took part in the squadron’s daring low-level strike on the German airfield at Herdla, Norway, flown in support of the Combined Operations commando landing at Vaagso; the attacking Blenheims struck both runways, the wireless station, and aircraft on the ground, and Brancker’s role in this and earlier operations earned him a Bar to his DFC, gazetted on 20 January 1942 — he had also been Mentioned in Despatches. Flying Officer Brancker was killed on 27 March 1942, aged thirty, during operations over the Netherlands; he is buried in Amersfoort (Oud Leusden) General Cemetery, in the Netherlands, at Plot 13, Row 2, Grave 24.