Delbert Roy Turner

A Flight Sergeant with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, Delbert died on 18th of September 1945 aged 20. 

Delbert was born at Lowestoft in 1924, a son of George Frederick and Gladys Turner. In 1939 his family lived at 33 Edinburgh Road. 

Delbert enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve after October 1942. By September 1945 Delbert was a Flight Engineer serving with 466 (Royal Australian Air Force) Squadron, based at Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire. 

On 18 September he was a member of the crew of a Liberator GR VIII aircraft, number KN736, on a training flight. The pilot feathered the engines at 1,000 feet, which was below the safety height. The engines were restarted but there was not sufficient time to reach power, and the aircraft crashed at Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire. Four of the crew survived.   

WITH THANKS TO: Malcolm Barrass