Sergeant Constantine McGarry

Royal Air Force, 260 Squadron

30th August 1944

Son of Constantine and Mary McGarry, of Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire

Bologna War Cemetery, I, A, 3

Constantine, known to his friends as Connie, was a pupil at Hemel Hempstead Grammar School from 1936 to 1940.
Unusually for someone living in the Hemel area at the time he was a Geordie (from the north east). Ex-pupil Tony Horton remembered that he had red hair and a wonderful singing voice.

Drawing on material she found at the National Archives in Kew in January 2010, Helena Mansbridge says:

“Constantine McGarry was only 20 when he was sent on his first operation.... He was sent to Florence and took part in 10 operations over the course of one month. Three of the most important attacks that stand out are the attacks on a railway bridge on 2nd and 17th August 1944 and then on the 30th of August when he was killed.

"Eye witnesses report seeing him flying straight and level at 500 feet over the target. A flash followed by a fire was seen near the bridge. It was reported that it had every appearance of an aircraft burning fiercely. Sergeant McGarry was not seen again and it is believed that his aircraft was hit by flak”.

   

         Constantine McGarry          The grave at Bologna Cemetery

Read more about Constantine McGarry here and see a picture of the type of aeroplane he flew here.