Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Flying Officer E. A. C. Willard, 61 Squadron, Royal Air Force, who was killed in action when his Lancaster was shot down during a raid on Berlin on 2 January 1944

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, in named card box of issue addressed to ‘Mrs. S. M. Willard, 7 Ballina Street, Honor Oak Park, S.E. 23’., extremely fine (4) £280-£340

Ernest Arthur Chenery Willard was born in Greenwich, London, in 1922. He attested into the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve for service during the Second World War. Advanced Corporal, he was commissioned Flying Officer on 4 June 1943, and, after training as a Navigator, was posted to 61 Squadron from 9 November 1943. On 2 January 1944, he was serving as Navigator on LM377 QR-F when she was intercepted on the outbound route by a night-fighter flown by the German ace Major Prins Heinrich Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and shot down 10km north of Neustadt am Rubenberge, near Hannover, with the loss of all seven crew members. He is buried in a collective grave in Hannover War Cemetery, Germany.

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