The Airmen's Stories - P/O M D Green

Maurice David Green was born on 22nd September 1920 and is recorded as being from Neills Hill, Belfast though his parents, Albert Thomas Green and Jessie Beatrice Green (nee Moon) were married in Leyton, then in Essex.

He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution before going on to study as a Divinity student at Trinity College Dublin.

He joined the RAFVR as an Airman u/t Observer in August 1939.

Called up on 1st September 1939, he completed his training at 4 BGS West Freugh and joined 248 Squadron on 30th March 1940.

On 20th October 1940 Green was airborne from Sumburgh in the Shetlands in Blenheim L9453 over the Norwegian coast. Three Blenheims from 248 Squadron had been sent out to look for a shot-down German crew in a dinghy, an intercepted radio message indicated that a Luftwaffe floatplane was on its way to pick them up.

Above image courtesy of Judith Lockey, niece of F/O William Clifford Hall of 248 Squadron.

Off Ballen Hemnefjord, L9453 was intercepted by two Me109s from 4./JG77 and shot down. The pilot P/O SR Gane was able to bale out but Green and Sgt. NJ Stocks were still aboard when the Blenheim went into the sea.

The two Messerschmitts then machine-gunned Gane while he was descending. His body was recovered by Norwegian civilians and buried nearby at Stamnes Farm. In 1945 he was re-interred at Stavne Cemetery, Trondheim.

Green, aged 20, is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, panel 8.

A newspaper announcement of his death said that he had received a Mention in Dispatches from Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Bowhill, presumably when Bowhill was C-in-C Coastal Command.

Above image courtesy of Dean Sumner.

Above and below: Green was mentioned in the coverage of the dedication of the Battle of Britain Chapel on 10th July 1947.