DOWNED HELLCAT’S REMAINS LOCATED

orn in Gisborne, New Zealand, Acting Lt. Cmdr. Ronald Archibald Richardson was flying a Grumman F6F Hellcat with No. 1840 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, from the British aircraft carrier during Operation Goodwood III on August 24, 1944. The airstrike was but one of many the Royal Navy directed at the German battleship in its lair at Kaafjord, Norway, in this case scoring eight direct bomb hits and five probables, but losing four Vought Corsairs and two Hellcats. One of the latter was flown by Richardson, who was making his third sortie of the day when, the combat report stated, “a hail of flak and shell disintegrated his aircraft.” At age 27 he was listed as “missing, presumed dead,” and to the grief of his wife Sheila and son Alistair he remained so for 74 years.