William Roy Greenslade

William Roy Greenslade was a Canadian airman born around 1913, raised in Youngstown, Alberta, who had enlisted in the Royal Air Force well before the war and built up considerable flying experience as a regular-service pilot. By the time the Second World War reached full intensity over Germany he was serving as a pilot with No. 149 Squadron RAF, a heavy-bomber unit flying Short Stirlings from Lakenheath, Suffolk. Over the course of his operational tour he accumulated sixty-three sorties against enemy targets, an exceptional total for a Bomber Command pilot of that period, and was recognised with both the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Force Cross, as well as a Mention in Despatches. His DFC — gazetted on 18 August 1942 — followed an attack on Hamburg in July of that year during which his aircraft was coned by searchlights and struck by anti-aircraft fire that destroyed one engine and shattered the astro hatch; rather than abort, he pressed the attack home, then strafed German searchlight and gun positions at low level on the homeward run. On the night of 2 October 1942, flying Stirling I R9167 (coded OJ-N), Greenslade and his crew of six took off from Lakenheath on an operation to Krefeld; they were intercepted and shot down by a German night fighter, crashing at Kronenberg in Limburg, the Netherlands, killing all on board. He was twenty-nine years old. Squadron Leader Greenslade and his crew were later reinterred at Jonkerbos War Cemetery, Gelderland, the Netherlands, where he rests in Plot 20, Row D, Grave 3.