Portrait of 402148 Flying Officer Rodney Bainbridge Archer RAAF, a pilot who served with No. 42 ...

Portrait of 402148 Flying Officer Rodney Bainbridge Archer RAAF, a pilot who served with No. 42 Squadron RAF. He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) on 28 March 1942 for his torpedo attacks on the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau off the Dutch coast on 12 February 1942. On 17 May 1942 he was the pilot of a Bristol Beaufort MkII bomber (coded AW-V, serial number AW383) which was part of an RAF mission, taking off from RAF Leuchars in Scotland, to attack the German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen off the coast of Norway. German fighter planes defending Prinz Eugen intercepted the bombers and it is believed that Archer along with this three crew on the Beaufort were all killed when their aircraft plunged into the sea. Only one body was recovered and buried, that being Sergeant Barry Cain of the RNZAF, all of the remaining crew are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey, UK.