Fg Off NZ416324 James Benjamin LOVELOCK navigator.

(Brother of Olympic runner)

KIA 1^st September 1943

BOMBER COMMAND.

75 (nz) Squadron, RAF (Mepal, Cambridgeshire – 3 group).

Stirling III EE918/D. Took off at 2023 hours on raid on Berlin (by 622 aircraft – 50 lost), and shot down by a night fighter SW of the target area, crashing at Potsdam. The flight engineer and air gunner were the only survivors and were taken prisoner.

A post war search for the graves of their five comrades could not be undertaken, as Potsdam lay in the Russian Zone, where the occupying power refused to co-operate. The five airmen are therefore commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. Age 26 269 hours 7^th Op.

Reference: “For Your Tomorrow” by Errol W. Martin

Note: Errol W. Martyn spent many years compiling the history of the RNZAF including the details of how every NZ airman perished in the air from 1914 through to 1998. The information is found in 2 bound volumes titled "For Your Tomorrow" of which only 300 copies were produced.