servicenumber branch death_date death_place birth_place allegiance unit honorific_suffix battles birth_date placeofburial rank article_title name
60335 united kingdom 15 september 1943 north sea baldslow , sussex f 617 squadron dso dfc world war ii 10 may 1920 st andrew 's church , wickhambreaux , kent squadron leader david maltby
 david john hatfeild maltby
david maltby

squadron leader david john hatfeild maltby raf -lrb- 10 may 1920 - 15 september 1943 -rrb- was a british royal air force pilot , service no. 60335 .
maltby 's maternal uncle was the first world war rfc pilot aubrey hatfeild mbe .
born on 10 may 1920 in baldslow , outside hastings , sussex , maltby was at marlborough college between 1934 and 1936 .
in 1938 he began training as a mining engineer in trenton , south yorkshire , but resigned at the outbreak of war .
he volunteered to join the royal air force -lrb- raf -rrb- and was called up on 20 june 1940 .
maltby began his operational career with no. 106 squadron raf in june 1941 , flying the handley page hampden on five operations .
by the end of the month he was transferred to 97 squadron , flying first hampdens , then avro manchesters and finally avro lancasters .
he completed his tour in june 1942 , and was awarded the dfc .
he then spent six months commanding an air bomber training section in no. 1485 target towing and gunnery flight , before returning to active service with 97 squadron in march 1943 .
he was given a new crew , most of whom had only just finished training .
on 25 march 1943 , he and his crew were transferred to 617 squadron , along with flt lt joe mccarthy and flt lt les munro and their crews .
maltby flew in the 617 squadron dams raid of 1943 .
he flew avro lancaster j-johnny , flying as part of the first wave that attacked the möhne dam .
the first three aircraft to attack the dam -lrb- guy gibson flying in g-george , hopgood in m-mother and harold brownlow martin in p-popsie -rrb- all missed the target .
the next , a-apple -lrb- flown by dinghy young -rrb- hit the dam and caused a small breach ; but as this was not apparent from the air , j-johnny also attacked , scored a hit , causing a large breach .
for his part in operation chastise , maltby was awarded a dso .
maltby was killed a few months later during operation garlic , a failed attempt at a low level raid on the dortmund-ems canal .
his lancaster ja981 crashed into the north sea while returning to base after the mission had been cancelled due to fog over the target .
his body was recovered and he was buried in the churchyard of st andrew 's church , wickhambreaux , kent .
in the 1955 film `` the dam busters '' , maltby was played by george baker .
