456

-3- (centre aligned)
A.O. MURDOCH. (underlined)
to No. 14 Operational Training Unit, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, for a course on Wellington Bomber aircraft, after which he proceeded to No. 1661 Conversion Unit, Winthorpe, Nottinghamshire, on the 11th December, 1943, for conversion to Stirling bomber aircraft and to No. 5 Lancaster Finishing School, Syerston, Nottinghamshire, on the 28th January, 1944. Squadron Leader Murdoch was then posted to No. 106 (Bomber) Squadron, Netherington, Lincolnshire. With this Squadron as pilot of a Lancaster bomber he took part in fifteen operational flights, the targets including Liepzig, Schweinfurt (2), Augsburg, Aachen, and Brunswick in Germany and loulouse and marshalling yards at Paris in Occupied France. He also took part in a minelaying sortie off Danzig.

Squadron Leader Murdoch was pilot of a Lancaster bomber which took off on air operations for the target of Schweinfurt on the night of the 26th April, 1944 and failed to return to its base, the result, it is presumed, of enemy action. All the members of the crew, including Squadron Leader Murdoch, were classified as missing. Later information was received from a German source through the International Red Cross Committee that he had lost his life and in consequence was reclassified to missing, believed killed in action. In due course his death was officially presumed to have occurred no the 27th April, 1944.

A Post War Casualty search revealed that Squadron Leader Murdoch and his six companions were buried in Communal graves in the Parish Cemetery, Laneuville-a-Bayard, 32 miles north west of Neufchateau, France.

Find a Grave link with a photo of S/Ldr. Murdoch: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67828060/anthony_o'shea-murdoch

5/2/963 AS2
2321 hours as Pilot

Mr. W.T. Murdoch (F) (right aligned)
24 Sumner Road, (right aligned)
St. Andrews Hill (right aligned)
CHRISTCHURCH (right aligned & underlined)