FAILED TO RETURN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 309, 30 December 1940, Page 6

FAILED TO RETURN.

AUCKLAND SERGEANT.

MISSING ON OPERATIONS.

Advice from the Royal Air Force base records that her son, Sergeant-Gunner Alfred H. Ritchie was reported missing on December 22, when his aircraft failed t ) return from an operational flight over enemy territory, lias l>een received by Mrs. *W. Ward, of 5, Parawai Orescent, the Casey Estate.

Sergeant Ritchie was educated at the Kovvhai Intermediate School and afterwards served his time as a motor mechanic in Auckland. He was a keen motor cyclist and served in the Territorial Force prior to enlisting in the Roval New Zealand Air Force on the

outbreak of hostilities. He was called up to train as an air gunner almost at once. After training at {he ground s-tation. Levin, he was sent on to Oaakea, and left Xew Zealand last February. On his arrival in England he was posted to a •bomber squadron, and letters have revealed that he Has since been engaged on numerous raids. His elder ibrother, Petty Officer Charles Ritchie, is. a cook on HALS. Achilles. Two stepbrothers aro also serving. Raymond Ward, on H.M.S. Leaiuler, and Walter Ward, with a special unit of the R.N.V.B.