William Walter Blessing

William Walter Blessing was an Australian airman, born at Glen Innes, New South Wales, on 2 October 1912, who enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in October 1940 and served with the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom. As a pilot with No. 105 Squadron — one of the units flying the de Havilland Mosquito on low-level daylight precision raids and, later, Pathfinder target-marking — he built a reputation for skill and determination over many sorties, all flown by day, and his leadership in these attacks brought him the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1943 and, soon afterwards, the Distinguished Service Order. By 1944 he held the rank of Squadron Leader and was flying with the Pathfinder force from RAF Bourn in Cambridgeshire. On the night of 7 July 1944 he took off in Mosquito ML946 to act as a primary target marker for an attack in support of the Normandy campaign near Caen, but his aircraft was attacked by an enemy night fighter at high altitude over the beachhead and shot down; Blessing was killed, aged 31, though his navigator survived. He is buried in La Délivrande War Cemetery at Douvres, Calvados, France, and was the husband of Audrey Pamela Blessing of Stanmore, Middlesex.