• Operation Chastise (Dambusters Raid)

Date of birth:

September 11th, 1923 (Eastleigh/Hampshire, United Kingdom)

Date of death:

May 17th, 1943 (Gilze-Rijen/Noord-Brabant, Nederland)

Buried on:

Commonwealth War Cemetery Bergen op Zoom
Plot: 24. Row: B. Grave: 5-7.

Service number:

1600540

Nationality:

British

William Charles Arthur Long was born on 11 September 1923 in Eastleigh, Hampshire, later moving with his family to Bournemouth. He applied to join the RAF at 18 but had to wait several months before being accepted. Selected for air gunnery training, he qualified in August 1942 and was posted to 106 Squadron in September.

Long flew two operations before joining Lewis Burpee’s crew on 20 December, becoming the fourth member of what would form the Dams Raid crew of AJ-S. He completed 21 more operations with Burpee in 106 Squadron and flew a single mission to Berlin on 16 January 1943.

Transferring to 617 Squadron with his crew on 29 March, Long adapted to the front turret position for the Dams Raid. AJ-S took off at 0011 on 17 May 1943 but was shot down less than two hours later, killing everyone on board. The Germans could not individually identify Guy Pegler, Bill Long, Tom Jaye, and James Arthur, burying them together at Zuylen Cemetery, Prinsenhage, alongside the graves of Burpee, Gordon Brady, and Leonard Weller. After the war, all seven were reburied in Bergen-op-Zoom War Cemetery.

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• - CWGC
  - Dambusters

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