The Airmen's Stories - Sgt. W C Wills

William Claude Wills was born in the third quarter of 1918 in Christchurch, the son of Charles Henry Archer Wills (1882-1931) and Florence May White Wills (1884-1969).

He was employed by Lloyds Bank when he joined the RAFVR about June 1937 as an Airman u/t Pilot.

Called up on 1st September 1939, Wills completed his training and arrived at 6 OTU Sutton Bridge on 3rd June 1940. After converting to Hurricanes he was posted to 3 Squadron at Wick in late June.

He moved to 73 Squadron at Castle Camps on 25th September.

On 10th November Wills embarked with the squadron on HMS Furious for West Africa and flew off to Takoradi on the 29th. The pilots then flew their Hurricanes in stages to Heliopolis, via Lagos, Accra, Kano, Maidugari, Khartoum, Wadi Haifa and Abu Sueir.

During December the pilots were attached to 274 Squadron in the Western Desert. The squadron began to operate on its own account in early January 1941.

On 1st February Wills shot down a CR42 south-west of Cirene.

At first light on 12th April, four Hurricances were prepared to undertake reconnaissance flights to establish the closeness of enemy ground units. P/O Chatfield and Sgt. Wills departed El Gubbi at 0730 to fly along the road to El Adem, F/Lt. Smith and P/O McDougall setting out 15 minutes later on a similar mission to Gazala and Mechili. At 0815 Chatfield returned alone to report that Wills had been shot down by ground fire whilst strafing, his Hurricane (V7560/TP-F) crashing near El Adem. Although he was recovered from the wreck by German soldiers, he had been seriously injured and soon succumbed to his wounds.

His body was recovered and he is buried in Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma, Libya and also commemorated on the family grave at Wimbourne Road Cemetery, Bournemouth.

Additional research coourtesy of "Hurricanes Over Tobruk", author Brian Cull , and Ray Windlow.

Above image courtesy of Grave Concerns.