25 Facts About Fraser Barron

Fraser Barron volunteered for the RNZAF and qualified as a pilot in late 1940.

Fraser Barron went to England as a sergeant to serve with the Royal Air Force and after training on heavy bombers was posted to No 15 Squadron, flying Short Stirling bombers.

Fraser Barron completed a first tour of operations by April 1942, flying 39 missions, after which he performed instructing duties.

Fraser Barron commenced a second tour in September 1942, this time with No 7 Squadron, part of the Pathfinder Force, flying numerous missions to mark targets for following bombers.

Fraser Barron soon desired a return to operations and arranged to be posted back to No 7 Squadron.

Fraser Barron was posthumously awarded a bar to his DSO, one of only four personnel of the RNZAF to receive this honour during the Second World War.

James Fraser Barron, known as Fraser Barron, was born on 9 January 1921 in Dunedin, New Zealand, one of two children of James Barron and his wife Winifred.

Fraser Barron's father was a grocer and when Barron was a child, purchased a store near Oamaru.

Fraser Barron was educated at the local primary school and then went onto Waitaki Boys' High School.

Fraser Barron participated in several sports while at school but otherwise was an average student.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, Fraser Barron applied to join the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

Fraser Barron's application was duly accepted and as a leading aircraftman, he underwent a short-term training course beginning on 2 July 1940, which would determine whether he would be selected for training as a pilot, observer or air gunner.

Fraser Barron departed for England on the passenger ship Aorangi on 29 January 1941.

Fraser Barron was given his own crew and aircraft on 1 September 1941 and received a promotion to flight sergeant.

Fraser Barron spent a period as an instructor, doing night landings and cross-country flights with trainee pilots.

Fraser Barron then returned to Waterbeach to pick up his instructing duties, which he soon began to find dull, despite being involved in four more bombing missions involving significant numbers of aircraft.

Fortunately, the ice began to melt, and Fraser Barron was able to gain sufficient height to clear the channel and safely land.

Fraser Barron was the first New Zealander to have been awarded the DFM, the DFC, and the DSO and his feat was widely reported in his home country.

Fraser Barron was eventually successful in his efforts and after Christmas 1943, he rejoined the now Lancaster-equipped No 7 Squadron for a third tour.

Fraser Barron's first such mission, and 75th overall, was a raid on railway marshalling yards at Tergnier involving 171 aircraft, mainly Halifaxes.

The exact circumstances of Fraser Barron's death are unclear, but a collision with another aircraft of No 7 Squadron, acting as deputy master bomber, is considered the most likely event.

The 15 men on both No 7 Squadron aircraft were all killed with Fraser Barron's Lancaster crashing into a Renault factory, close to the aiming point for the raid.

Originally interred in a civilian grave, alongside one of his crew members, Flight Sergeant Derek Wood, Fraser Barron was re-interred in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Le Mans West Cemetery after the war.

Fraser Barron is an outstanding captain whose example of skill, bravery and determination has impressed all.

Fraser Barron was one of only four, and the only one from Bomber Command, to be awarded a bar to his DSO.