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on the 18th September. From this base as a member of the crew of the Pathfinder Force he took part in twenty five operational flights the targets including Frankfurt (4), Cologne, Ludwigshaven, Mannheim, Berlin (12) Madgeburg, Sweinfurt, Augsburg and Stuttgart (2) all in Germany.

On the 18th January 1944 Pilot Officer Matheson was awarded the Pathfinder badge, having completed eleven raids by that date.

Pilot Officer Matheson was the observer of a Lancaster bomber engaged on the night of the 30/31st March 1944 in an attack on Nuremberg. The aircraft failed to return to its base and all the crew including Pilot Officer Matheson were classified as missing. Later, information was received from a German official source through the International Red Cross Committee that he had lost his life and wsa buried in the Furth Cemetery. In consequence he was reclassified as missing believed killed in action and in due course his death was officially presumed to have occurred on the 31st March 1944.

A post-war casualty enquiry revealed that the aircraft crashed at Kunreuth, near Forcheim.

(Body later to be re-interred in a British Military Cemetery)

Find a Grave link with photo of deceased: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18611469/kenneth-duncan-matheson

5/2/14962 A.S.2.
467 hours as Observer.

Mrs. E.M. Matheson (W) (right aligned)
87, Rintoul Street, (right aligned)
WELLINGTON. (right aligned & underlined)