James Owen Willis

James Owen Willis was a Southern Rhodesian pilot who rose to the rank of Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force and gave his life in the skies over North Africa in November 1941. He served with No. 45 Squadron, one of the RAF’s front-line light-bombing units operating Bristol Blenheim IVs from desert landing grounds in Libya and Egypt during the hard-fought Western Desert campaign. His conduct in action brought him the Distinguished Flying Cross, gazetted on 30 May 1941, with the citation recording that he “displayed the utmost determination in action against the enemy” — recognition earned at a time when Blenheim crews faced severe losses flying low-level raids against heavily defended Axis airfields and supply columns. On 22 November 1941, while leading an attack on the Axis airfield at El Adem in Libya, his Blenheim IV (serial Z6439) was intercepted and shot down by Bf 109 fighters. Willis was killed; he was also noted in the casualty record as having been Mentioned in Despatches in addition to his DFC. He lies at rest at Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma, Libya, in Plot 2, Row B, Grave 9 — one of thousands of Commonwealth servicemen buried in that desert cemetery west of Tobruk.