Thomas Noel Partridge

Wing Commander Thomas Noel Partridge (service number 37574) was a British Royal Air Force officer who rose to command No. 18 Squadron, a Bristol Blenheim IV unit operating from RAF Horsham St. Faith in Norfolk. He had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, gazetted posthumously on 8 August 1941 in the London Gazette (Issue 35241, page 4570). Partridge had only recently taken command of 18 Squadron, joining the unit at the very start of July 1941 and bringing his regular observer, Sergeant George Arthur Dvorjetz, with him. On 16 July 1941 he led the second wave of a major low-level daylight strike against shipping in Rotterdam docks — a force of eighteen aircraft drawn from Nos. 18, 139, and 226 Squadrons — flying Blenheim IV V6267 coded WV-M. German anti-aircraft defences were ready and waiting when the second wave swept in at low level; Partridge’s aircraft was struck by flak and crashed into the Noordsingel at Rotterdam at 17:00 hours, killing him together with Sergeant Dvorjetz and Flight Sergeant John Oscar Smith DFM, his wireless operator and air gunner. He is buried at Rotterdam (Crooswijk) General Cemetery in the Netherlands, Plot LL, Row 2, Grave 6.