31 Sqdn SAAF Memorial plaque -Italy
 

On Sunday 15th May a memorial plaque for the 12th October 1944 missing in action crew of Liberator KH158 of 31 Squadron SAAF was unveiled, in a ceremony high in the Ligurian part of the Apennine mountains, ENE of Genoa, Italy.The plaque is in place on an old "round house" wall in the grounds of a 1944 partisan meeting house, Faggio Rotondo .This is in the vicinity the 1944 partisan supply drop zone area code "Morris " and near a regular mountain hiking trail .

The ceremony was attended by my family [daughter, son-in-law and grandsons of F/O T R Millar RAAF-the bombaimer] also family of the pilot, Maj SS Urry SAAF , British , Australian and South African Embassy officials in Rome and Genoa plus the Italian Ligurian officials ,Member of Parliament, Mayors from the nearby towns and local people. The event was covered by the Genoan press.

All of this was made possible by an Italian friend who suggested the plaque in remembrance of my father, F/O TR Millar RAAF and approached the local Mayor with his suggestion.He and another friend, who was involved in a earlier airforce commemoration, put most of this event together, with input from myself.

Liberator KH158 is still missing [and is probably underwater somewhere] but I feel that this plaque is a culmination of 10 years of research into my father's wartime life and disappearance .Now more local Italian people and officials know about the loss of the plane and one day someone just might find out information about it's whereabouts .

The crew were --
Maj SS Urry -SAAF
F/O G E Hudspith -RAF
F/O T R Millar RAAF
Lt GA Collard -SAAF
Lt NW Armstrong -SAAF
2/Lt PJ Lordan -SAAF
W/O LB Bloch -SAAF
Sgt RC Fitzgerald -RAF

Re: 31 Sqdn SAAF Memorial plaque -Italy
 

Hi are you aware of the following link that may be of interest http://www.awm.gov.au/research/peopl...n.asp?p=559157

Another link is www.naa.gov.au
If you haven’t used this site before you have to do the following
1 Open site
2 Click on “Search Collection” on right of screen
3 Click on “Search as Guest”
4 In Keywords Box type in 422612 (Which was your Father’s Service Number)
this will give Two (2) Digital references .
5 Click on the Manuscript Image in the 6th column
The first one give 23 pages and the second one gives 59 pages of information about your Dad
6 Click on the Read or Enlarge buttons as desired

You are probably aware of the following links
http://tinyurl.com/6nbrfeg

http://tinyurl.com/6pjez5p

http://tinyurl.com/a4f3ks

http://tinyurl.com/7y2eu4m


Kind regards

Ross