Name
Donald Carpenter Clark
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
18/07/1944
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sergeant
1717615
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
115 Sqdn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HITCHIN CEMETERY
South Sec. Grave 16A.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS, THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Hitchin memorials
Biography
He had joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and his Service Number was 1717615. He was serving as a Flight Engineer in 115 Squadron at the time of death.
Lancaster III LM616 KO-J had taken off at 04.20hrs from Witchford, approximately ten miles north-north-east of Cambridge, to attack a strongpoint in the Emieville battle area in France. On the return journey an engine caught fire and the aircraft spent some time circling Offley near Hitchin, probably trying to find a place to crash-land. At 7.15am that morning, Offley was shrouded in mist and the Lancaster approached the top of the ridge, brushed trees in the vicinity of a house then called Eagles Nest. hit a field and two large water tanks then ricocheted into West End farmhouse on the edge of the village. All seven of the crew were killed, P/O SA Letts (Pilot), Sgt D.C. Clark (Flight Engineer), Sgt K.J. Smith (Navigator), P/O W. J. Kennedy R.C.A.F. (Air Bomber), F/O T. Richardson (Wireless Operator), Sgt I. Morris and Sgt E.D. White R.C.A.F (Air Gunners).
At the time, the farmer Mr George Handley and two of his sons had started to milk cows in a shed nearby but could not get near the farmhouse due to the flames and exploding petrol. Inside the farmhouse his wife and two daughters, Elsie aged 23 and Mary aged 36 were killed. Elsie was at home on leave from the A.T.S. where she served on gun-sites. The farmhouse was completely demolished.
He was buried in Grave 16A. Hitchin Cemetery.
He was the son of Benjamin George Arthur and Winifred Emma Clark, corner of Bearton Road and Ickleford Road, Hitchin and later of East Barnet in Hertfordshire.
Two members of the crew were buried in Cambridge City Cemetery, both Canadians were taken to Brookwood Military Cemetery for burial and the two others were taken to their hometowns. The members of the Handley family were buried in Offley churchyard.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, the late George Handley, brother of Elsie and Mary, ‘Bomber Command Losses - 1944’ by W.R. Chorley, Daily Mail dated 19th July 1944, Herts Express dated 2 2nd July 1944
