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NZ40924 Flight Sergeant William Henry John MILNER (surname underlined)
Sister Mrs. J.R.G. Williams of Onehunga Auckland.

John Milner was born at Helensville on the 1st November 1909. He was educated at the Hamilton West and Devonport Schools. After leaving school he was employed in various capacities. When applying for enrolment in the Civil Reserve of Pilots in May 1939, he was employed by Mr. F. FINDLAY, Baker of Hamilton. Prior to this he had qualified in 1937 for his Pilots "A" Licence. On the outbreak of war he immediately offered his services for War Service.

Flight Sergeant Milner was enlisted at the Initial Training Wing, Levin, on the 9th April, 1940, and posted to the Training Squadron at Ohakea, on the 4th May. Here on the 7th June he was awarded the Air Gunner badge and promoted to the rank of Sergeant. While overseas on the 1st September 1941, he was further promoted to Flight Sergeant. Meantime on the 7th June 1940, he embarked by the "Rangitata" for the United Kingdom.

Sergeant Milner arrived at No. 1 Depot, Uxbridge, Middlesex, on the 21st July, and proceeded to No. 1 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit, Silloth, Cumberland, at the end of the same month; then to No. 5 Operational Training Unit, Aston Downs, Gloucestershire, where he crewed up and trained on Defiant Aircraft. On the 4th November, he was posted to No. 75 New Zealand Squadron, at Feltwell, Norfolk, and as Air Gunner of Wellington bomber aircraft took part in fifteen operational flights to targets at Hamburg, Berlin (2), Mannheim, Bremen, Hanover, Wilhelmshaven, Gelsenkirchen, Dusseldorf, and Cologne (3) in Germany; Turin in Italy, Paris and Boulogne in France.

On the 18th March 1941, he flew from Stradishall, Suffolk to Benghazi in Cyraenaica by Wellington Aircraft the journey taking twelve hours, when he was posted to No. 70 Squadron at Kabrit in the Western Desert. On the 7th April he was involved in a crash at