Michael John David Fuller

Michael John David Fuller, known to his family as John, was born on 28 April 1920 in Reigate, Surrey, and worked before the war as a telephone engineer for the Post Office. He joined the Royal Air Force in May 1940 but did not begin operational training until February 1942, after which he qualified as a bomb aimer and served briefly with No. 106 Squadron before moving to No. 50 Squadron, where he first flew with Squadron Leader Henry Maudslay’s crew on 13 February 1943; the whole crew was subsequently posted to the newly formed No. 617 Squadron for the Dams Raid. On the night of 16/17 May 1943, during Operation Chastise, Fuller was bomb aimer aboard Lancaster ED937, coded AJ-Z, one of the aircraft detailed to attack the Eder Dam, but the mine he released overshot, the weapon falling late and detonating near the aircraft, which had apparently been damaged on its low approach. AJ-Z was shot down by flak near Emmerich during the return flight, and all seven men aboard were killed; Fuller died on 17 May 1943 at the age of 23. He was originally buried by the Germans in a collective grave at Düsseldorf North Cemetery, and after the war his remains were reinterred at the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany, where he is commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.