[tressach]

Do you know what part of Ireland, or county, he came from?

Wilfred Patrick Francis (Paddy “Treacle”) Treacy, DSO, SL 420312, Service No. 37617 (d.20th April 1941)
He died in the Battle of Britain and was one of fourteen Irishmen who were pilots in WWII. He had 5 (2+3) ‘kills’ (official 3.33)
Paddy Treacy joined 74 Squadron with Pilot officer Bryan Vincent `Paddy` Byrne and Sailor Malan and was B Flight commander at the beginning of the war. In Spring 1940, he was the Flight Commander. He flew a Spitfire and saw combat on the 24th (Hs 126 & Ju 88) and 27th May 1940 (Me 109E & Do 17). He went missing in France for the second time in May 1940. In July 1940 he was in Marseille and had escaped three times from the Germans before being arrested by the French. He escaped after capture.
Paddy Treacy became Squadron Leader of 242 Squadron seeing combat 1st and 5th April 1941. The Hurricanes of 242 Squadron flew from Martlesham Heath to the Stapleford Tawney airfield on the 9th April 1941. On the squadron's first operation out of Stapleford (20th April) three Hurricanes collided in cloud over the Channel after finding themselves suddenly under attack from German fighters. The pilots drowned when their Hurricanes crashed into the sea, one of whom was Sq Ldr Treacy.
Buried: Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. Plot 11. Row A. Grave 17.
Ref: National Archives UK.
Hess, William N (1966) Famous Airmen: The Allied Aces of World War II. Arco Publishing.
Jones, Ira (1954) Tiger Squadron: The Story of 74 Squadron, R.A.F., in Two World Wars.