Surname:	MacKenzie
Forename(s):	Duncan Benjamin Grant
Rank:	Sergeant
Service number:	991795
Regiment:	Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 156 Squadron
Date of death:	3 January 1944 Aged 21
Place of death:	Missing
Buried Commemorated	Unknown Runnymede Memorial Panel 233,

Background

Duncan was born on 29th January 1923 son of Duncan, Stone Mason and Helen MacKenzie m.s.Grant, at Speyside Cottages, Kingussie. His parents, Duncan MacKenzie and Helen m.s. Grant, were married in Nairn on 12th December 1913.

He married Janet Ferguson Hunter m.s.Cameron on the 7th December 1942 at St Andrew’s Manse, Kingussie. Duncan’s occupation was given as Postman and Wireless Operator in the RAF. His home address was given as Kingussie (noted now engaged in War Service). Janet, his wife, was eighteen years old, a shop assistant living at 7 Garraline Terrace, Kingussie. His father, Duncan, was already deceased at the time of the marriage.

Duncan had two older sisters Mary Margaret MacKenzie born 1920 in Kingussie and Eleanor Beatrice Stewart MacKenzie born 1915 in Nairn.

War Record

Duncan served with 156 Squadron based at RAF Warboys, Huntingtonshire (now Cambridgeshire). On the night he died he was on board an Avro Lancaster JB553 GT-J. He was a wireless operator/ air gunner. On the night of 2nd-3rd January 1944, in a raid to Berlin, the squadron lost 10 Lancaster bombers. All eight of the crew of Duncan’s Lancaster died. In total the raid consisted of 383 aircraft of which 27 (7.0%)were lost.

January 1944 was cold and this did nothing to dampen the flights nor reduce the combat fatalities. “Raids …………saw heavy losses (seventeen alone failed to return to Warboys in January, all with experienced crews) and numerous aircraft returning early. For 156 Squadron this was disastrous …………..and consequently morale fell. With high losses the survival rate fell to an estimated 15%, an unsustainable level of loss for any squadron. For the last fourteen days of January the squadron was effectively reduced to non-operational flights.”       Middlebrook, M & Everitt, C. “The Bomber Command War Diaries 1939-1945“, Midland Publishing (1996)

Also commemorated at the International Bomber Command Center, Lincoln.  See – https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/217499/

Operational Record Book is available, on line, from the National Archive ref AIR 27/1042/1 and AIR 27/1042/2

Those who served in 156 Squadron Pathfinders Force are commemorated by a stained glass window at St Mary Magdelene Church, Warboys, Cambridgeshire and on a slate plaque.

He is also remembered on the Kingussie War Memorial and Bomber Command Memorial, Lincoln