Flying Officer David Alastair Sparrow was born in 1922 and was from Gravesend, Kent.

He was a pilot on a Mosquito II with 151 Sqn RAF. His navigator was F/O Victor Brown.

The squadron belonged to Fighter Command and was very experienced in Mosquito's and the type of missions it was to fly this night.

In the night of 20 April 1943 F/O Sparrow and F/O Brown took off from their base at Wittering in Northamptonshire, on a 'Night Ranger' mission, basically a 'roving' mission in an allocated area. Their allocated area this night was South to Southwest of Bremen towards the Dutch Border.

 

151 Sqn RAF

The Mosquito's on this mission reported that they attacked 8 trains. They damaged one and observed hits on several others. During the engagement, F/O Sparrow's Mosquito was caught in a cone of searchlights and shot down by flak. The plane crashed near Onstwedde in the province of Groningen. Both F/O Sparrow and F/O Brown were killed. Both were 21 years old.

(Picture by Wim Bastiaanse)

Onstwedde, The Netherlands

 

Directions to Onstwedde General Cemetery

See Also:
F/O Victor Brown

Acknowledgements:
Martin Bull and Mark Huxtable for information about this nights missions.

Sources:
En Nooit Was Het Stil, Part II, G.J. Zwanenburg, Royal Dutch Air Force,

If you have any suggestions, comments or additional information, please contact me.

This website is dedicated to the men and women who died and/or are buried in The Netherlands during World War II.

 

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