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David Leslie Craig — Flight Sergeant in 150 Squadron R.A.F.

Killed in Action 25th August 1942 Aged 26

Buried in Rienne Communal Cemetery, Rienne, Namur, Belgium,

Born in Strabane in 1916, son of Samuel and Amy Craig

Leslie was educated at the local Abercorn primary school before moving on to the Prior School in Lifford from which he graduated with a senior certificate. He was very much into sports and played both hockey and soccer at local level. It had been planned that he would go into banking but he found it difficult to find a position and, like many other young men in the period, was forced to take a series of temporary jobs. Leslie had always been a very adventurous spirit and had been keenly interested in aircraft and radio communication. It was little surprise, therefore, that he decided to join the RAF in 1937 and see some action abroad.

Following his period of training Leslie spent a happy period in the RAF, taking parting numerous missions to Asia and the East in the years prior to the outbreak of the War in September 1939. By then he had joined a radar programme at one of the air bases in the south of England and found the new work stimulating and challenging. The German advance into western Europe in the spring of 1940 and the launch of the aerial war over Britain, however, made Leslie reconsider his relatively safe land based job and he volunteered for active duty in repelling the German attacks and taking the war to Germany. He was posted to 150 Squadron, based at Snaith in Yorkshire. In the latter part of 1940 and throughout most of 1941 the RAF bore much of the brunt of the fighting against Hitler’s invasion plans and life as a pilot or radio engineer was one of constant pressure and close shaves with death. Life at base camp could be suffocating and many of the aircraft men tried to get off camp during their periods off duty. One of the survivors of 150 Squadron, Group Captain Randal, wrote to Leslie’s brother, Vic., in 1991 and told of how he had never visited the Sergeants’ Mess during his period at Snaith from June to September 1942 — instead he was off station in a much friendlier atmosphere in towns like Leeds. He described the very heavy loss rate as the major cause of the absence of communal life in camp and wrote that they lived from day — to- day, in ‘an incredible and unnatural atmosphere’. Leslie seems to have lived a similar life and he often met his brother, Terry, in Leeds during his time off duty. Terry was working there in the civil service and his job was investigating claims for unemployment benefit. It is difficult to imagine how young men could relax when they were likely to meet death the following day but that is what many had to endure and none more so than the airforce men. The companionship of the brothers and their frequent meetings ensured that the family at home were kept informed on the progress of aspects of the war, though the continued risk elements were always minimised when either of the brothers were on visits home. Vic remembers that despite the low key approach by the brothers his parents and other family members were constantly listening to the radio news to learn about missions undertaken and reports of casualties and planes shot down. Every day it was a case of hoping against hope that the news would not report losses to Leslie’s company.

And Leslie had also tried to plan for the future. He had become engaged to a girl from Wales who was employed locally as a Land Girl, helping with farming activities, and they had twice planned their wedding, only to have it postponed both times because of the pressures of work and the impossibility of planning ahead during a hectic period in the war.

Leslie’s final flight was on the 24th August 1942 when he was gunner and radio operator aboard a Wellington bomber on a mission to attack Frankfurt in Germany. Having completed the bombing run, the plane was on its return to base when it was attacked by German fighter aircraft and during the engagement Leslie Craig was killed and other crew members wounded. The pilot attempted to land the wounded plane in Belgium but struck a tree just over the Ardennes and crash landed. Remarkably two of the crew survived the crash but one later died on the way to prison hospital in Brussels while the other, gunner Sergeant Dolton, spent the rest of the war in prison camp. The villagers of Rienne sought permission from the Germans to bury the three airman who had died in the crash and showed their feelings by providing a military style send off for men they had never seen. From 1942 onwards the people of Rienne tended the graves of Leslie Craig and his fellow crew members and treated them as local heroes in the war against Nazism.

The Craig family in Strabane were informed by the Air Ministry in London on 6th February 1943 that a report had been received which stated that Flight Sergeant David Leslie Thomas Craig, 540596, was buried with full military honours on 27th August at Rienne, near Namur, Belgium. It had been a long wait for the family since the report of August the previous year that the plane had failed to return and that Leslie and the other crew members were listed as missing. There had always been the slight hope that he had survived the crash and was either in hiding or in prisoner of war camp but the news of February effectively shattered that outside chance. Leslie would not be returning to his home in Strabane.

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