Neville Butler

Squadron Leader Neville Butler was one of the elite Pathfinder pilots who marked targets for Bomber Command's main force. Flying Lancasters with No. 83 Squadron, he completed 45 missions before being shot down over the Ruhr Valley in September 1944. Pathfinder crews had an even higher casualty rate than regular bomber crews. Neville was 24 when he died. His DFC and Bar, awarded for repeated acts of bravery over heavily defended targets, are held by his family in Birmingham. He is buried at the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany.