Basil Bonakis

Flight Lieutenant Basil Demetrius Bonakis was an English airman of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve who died during the Second World War.

He was born in Hendon, the son of Greek-born Isidore and Agnes Bridget Bonakis (née McGrail). Bonakis undertook pilot training at Americus, Georgia, and for a while served as a flying instructor after graduation.^[1]

Aged 28, Bonakis, a pilot with 169 Squadron, died on 7 January 1945, when his de Havilland Mosquito (serial PZ351) was shot down by a night fighter while operating in support of a raid against Munich.^[2] He had married, in 1944, to Deidre Elaine Minchin, and had one daughter - Deirdre.

Bonakis and his navigator, Flight Sergeant R.S. Garland, were initially buried at Aufstetten. They were reinterred post-war in Durnbach War Cemetery.

Notes[]

↑ Guinn, Gilbert Sumter (2007), The Arnold Scheme: British Pilots, the American South, and the Allies' Daring Plan, p. 119.
↑ Chorley, W.R. (1998), Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: Aircraft and crew losses: 1945, p. 39.

References[]

Bonakis, Basil Demetrius, cwgc.org. Retrieved 19 February 2015.

[1] Guinn, Gilbert Sumter (2007), The Arnold Scheme: British Pilots, the American South, and the Allies' Daring Plan, p. 119.

[2] Chorley, W.R. (1998), Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: Aircraft and crew losses: 1945, p. 39.

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