Today we are profiling F/L Holland, as new information has come in from his grand daughter via a friend.
F/L Holland's original posting with limited information was posted along with commonwealth graves commission information with KIA date of death as April 2, 1945. But we didn't have much else. Nevertheless, we see this pattern regularly where a relative with information otherwise lost to the attics will find our listing and add more information in memory of.
At the same time, we added a new tag for pilots where a mystery (or questions) remain, i.e. the pilot entry is being researched for further details which are missing or anticipated. F/L Holland is one such pilot where we have gained new information and hope for more.
If you visit his page
here, you will see numerous new digital scanned artifacts and clippings (one detailing a train attack), his log-book notes on aircraft flown, which is quite a list, and, various photos.
One squadron and serial are identified in the original post by Ade Mottram a year or two ago. A more complete list will be added soon. F/L Holland flew from 1941 to just a month or so before the end of WWII and is buried in Germany, as he would have been involved in the final allied push of WWII in Europe.
The unknown information we are seeking are the details as to what happened when he was killed in action and prior. Renee, the grand daughter's friend, will be assisting in adding serials flown. What happens then is that when any user subsequently clicks a serial on the pilot page, or squadron, they gather more information on fellow pilots, and, in some ways, this helps relatives gain a greater picture into what life was like then or who they flew with.
When we have more information on F/L Holland, we'll mark the "mystery" solved. In the meantime, when we wait for information in helping solve a question or two, that pilot page will get the "mystery" tag added. Any reader can find the list of pilots with that tag by clicking pilots on the top navigation. It's a way for any reader to get involved and help search the ORBs or other records. Once solved, and if the listing is complete and provides a full biography and / or a good read, we may mark that pilot entry as "good read" as well.
In this way we can actively build information on a pilot. Often a timeline to get a full listing often starts with a simple "stub" as Ade Mottram (nephew of F/L Mottram) has done when he added dozens of pilots to the site, just like many other enthusiasts have taken the time to do.
Kurt
