Pilot Officer Carl Olaf Bodding was born on 25 November 1914 in Randall, Jewell County, Kansas, USA, the third of the four children of Edward Andrew Bodding (1879-1961) and Lydia Ella Bodding née Dobbins (1890-1960).
In 1940 he was training as a Service Pilot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA and went to Canada where he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, service number 108626. He came to England to continue his training and in 1941 he was assigned to No.121 Eagle Squadron. The American Air Museum in Britain website gives details of his career.
He was based at RAF Kirton-in Lindsey and was killed in action, aged 27 years, on 28 April 1942 when flying a Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vb aeroplane, serial number AD289, over Dunkirk, France. As he has no known grave, he is commemorated on Panel 68 at the Air Forces Memorial, Cooper's Hill Lane, Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey. A memorial stone was also laid in Saint Lukes Cemetery, Randall, Jewell County, Kansas. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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