• Operation Chastise (Dambusters Raid)

Date of birth:

April 28th, 1920 (Reigate/Surrey, United Kingdom)

Date of death:

May 17th, 1943 (Emmerich am Rhein, Germany)

Buried on:

Commonwealth War Cemetery Reichswald Forest
Plot: 5. Row: B. Grave: 16-18.

Service number:

143760

Nationality:

British

Michael John David Fuller, known as John, was born on 28 April 1920 in Reigate, Surrey. After school, he worked as a Post Office telephone engineer. He joined the RAF in May 1940, qualifying as a bomb aimer in February 1942.

After a brief time with 106 Squadron, Fuller was posted to 50 Squadron, first flying with Henry Maudslay on 13 February 1943. He completed several operations before transferring with Maudslay's crew to 617 Squadron, by which time he had been commissioned.

Bomb aiming during the Eder Dam attack was exceptionally challenging. Fuller released AJ-Z's mine on the third run, but reports suggest the aircraft may have hit trees, hampering the mechanism. The mine was dropped too late, struck the parapet, and exploded beneath the aircraft.

The crew managed to reach Emmerich before being downed by a flak battery about 50 minutes after the Eder attack. At AJ-Z's crash site, German forces could not identify the remains of Fuller, Tytherleigh, and Urquhart, leading to their burial in a collective grave at Düsseldorf North Cemetery. After the war, the entire crew was reinterred in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery.

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• Photo 1: Findagrave
• - CWGC
  - Dambusters

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