| Thanks for all your help. The book recommendation looks like a good idea; helping with this project has unearthed a whole lot of other local information about crash sites and airfields that I didn't know existed.
Elsewhere on this forum I found a search engine (Geoff's) to look at CWGC records by date. A search of RAF casualties for 30th October 1942 brought up a number of hits, but taking out those with squadron numbers who were stationed elsewhere, and those who are commemorated at Alamein still leaves over a dozen possibilities. None of them are buried locally. They are of different ranks, but I don't know if this will give any clues as to which may have been on board. The witness described the unpleasant task of retrieving the bodies, so I'm sure the story is based on fact, even if the date may not be certain. I assume that the local paper would not have reported it either.
I'll keep at it.
Dave |