Leonard Hartley

Buried at Kiel War Cemetery, Germany. Personal inscription on headstone: In remembrance of my darling husband, Leonard. Bottom right photo is of his grave in Buried at Kiel War Cemetery, Germany. Photo credit: Melanie Wadd. Bottom left photo is an early photo of the cemetery where Hartley is now buried. After the Second World War, graves were marked by temporary grave markers before being replaced by Portland stone headstones.

The Squadron was based at Downham Market, Norfolk, from 7 July 1942 to March 1944, and from January 1942 to April 1943 flew Short Stirling I aircraft.

Leonard was killed in action on 21 August 1942. One RAF record has a brief report of the loss of Leonard's aircraft: 'Shot down by flak at Hoffnungstal-Mariental during a mine laying sortie to the Kadet Channel. One of the crew survived and was captured.' (UK WW2 Index to Allied Airman ROH 1939-1945). The aircraft typically had seven crew: two pilots, navigator, bomb aimer, front gunner/wireless operator, two gunners and a flight engineer.

Leonard is buried in Kiel War Cemetery (2. J. 2). The history of the cemetery indicates that his grave was brought in after the war.

CWGC: Kiel War Cemetery. The city of Kiel is in north Germany about 100kms north of Hamburg. 'Most of those buried in Kiel War Cemetery were airmen lost in bombing raids over northern Europe, whose graves were brought in from cemeteries and churchyards throughout Schleswig-Holstein, the Frisian Islands and other parts of north-western Germany.' (www.cwgc.org)

128 Squadron was also known as 128 (Gold Coast) Squadron, in honour of the people of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) who had adopted the Squadron.

RAF Downham Market: there is now a memorial at the disused airfield to mark the squadrons, including 128 Squadron, that operated from the airfield 1942-1