Virgel Lee Riley Photo: AS 18 JUL 2024 + 14 JUL 2021 Updated: 26 JUL 2024

Airman: a040006.htm Surname: Riley Init: V L Rank: F/O Service: RCAF Sqdn: 424

P_link: p381.htm Plane: HAL MZ901 Operation: Minelaying Crash_site: Near Idom

Crash_d: d151044 Buried_d: b150645 C_link: c040.htm At_Next: Idom

 HAL MZ901 styrtede ned her, få kilometer fra Idom og Holstebro. Se p381MACR.
Se mindekors på Idom Kirkegård. Fotos  A * B * C * D   Google Map p381 Halifax MZ901     
Se en udførlig Beretning fra Evald Sønderby om flystyrtet baseret på øjenvidneskildringer.

De tyske soldater begravede de faldne flyvere "på stedet" efter deres stående ordre fra august 1944.
Se mere i FAF Resume. Krigen blev stadig mere bitter.
Disse flyvere blev begravet rigtigt på Idom Kirkegård den 15. juni 1945. Se mere ved flyet HAL MZ901.

Flying Officer (Air Bomber) Virgel Lee Riley, 33 år, var søn af Arthur S. og Annie I. Riley, gift med
Ivy K. Riley, Castlegar, British Columbia, Canada. (Kilde: CWGC) Se foto fra deres to døtre. 7 flyvere.

HAL MZ901 crashed here, a few kilometres from Idom and Holstebro. See p381MACR.
See memorial cross in Idom Churchyard. Photos  A * B * C * D Google Map p381 Halifax MZ901
See a comprehensive Account from Evald Sønderby about the air crash based on eye witness accounts.
This is also based on a report from Flight Sergeant A. C. Smiths who was on this operation as a
member of the crew of Halifax LV785, ZA-C, 10 Squadron, RAF.
(Report sent by Evald Sønderby to AirmenDK on 20 SEP 2015. He had it from the youngest daughter
of Virgil Lee Riley who sent much valuable information about him.)

The German soldiers buried the fallen airmen "on the spot" according to their orders from August 1944.
See more in FAF Summary. The war grew still more bitter.
These airmen were properly buried in Idom Churchyard on 15 June 1945. See more at HAL MZ901.

Flying Officer (Air Bomber) Virgel Lee Riley, 33, was the son of Arthur S. and Annie I. Riley,
and the husband of Ivy K. Riley, of Castlegar, British Columbia, Canada. (Source: CWGC) See Riley Lake.
See Photo from their two daughters.
Greater love hath no man than this    St. John. XV.13 (See also A. V. Plante) His name is engraved
on the Memorial Wall at the BC Museum of Canada. The Canadian Virtual War Memorial has this.
He is remembered on The Walls of Names at the International Bomber Command Centre, Phase 2, P 232.

Halifax III MZ901 QB-N took off from RAF Skipton on Swale at 18.22 hrs on 15 OCT 1944.
(Source: Aircrew Remembered has this + Archive Report.)