Flt Lt Richard CURLE

On a windswept, rainy day, 4 March 2024, six RAFA Sud Ouest France Branch members attended a remembrance ceremony at Château d’Oléron on the Island of Oléron in the Charente-Maritime. It was to honour Flt Lt Richard CURLE who crashed and died on 4 March 1943, 81 years ago, and who is buried on his own in the Communal cemetery at Château d’Oléron. He was a member of the crew of a Lancaster from 100 Sqn which left RAF Grimsby to lay mines in the Gironde Estuary but crashed in the sea near Fort Boyard. The rest of the crew were never found but are listed on the Runnymede Memorial, near Windsor in the UK.

Photographs by Lilian PASQUALI, used with permission: