421737 Flying Officer Allan Gordon MacDonald, (1918-24/12/1943). "missing while on air operations"

Advice has been received that Flying-officer Allan Gordon Macdonald, of Belleknowes. is missing while on air alterations.  -Evening Star, 29/12/1943.

AIRCASUALTIES

 — Presumed Dead. — (Previously Reported Missing.) 

Macdonald, Flying-officer Allan Gordon. Dunedin.   -Evening Star, 29/9/1944.

Allan MacDonald and his crew took off at 00.45hrs on the morning of December 24, 1943, bound for Berlin in a 103 Squadron Lancaster, of which he was Bombardier.  They did not return to their British base.  It would have been a long wait for the seven families of the crew.  "Missing" meant that the bomber did not return. "Missing, presumed dead" meant that there had been no positive word through the Red Cross that the crew had been killed or taken prisoner.

The Public Trust advertised that Allan's estate was being wound up in September, 1945. Presumably by that date the details of Allan Macdonald and his crew had been ascertained by Allied authorities after the end of the war.  Allan and his crew are buried at Rheinberg Military Cemetery, Germany.

Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin.