1939/45 Star, Aircrew Europe Star, 1939/45 War with original, unused ribbons and named Air Ministry Condolence slip in card box of issue addressed to his father, H Wheatley of Waldersey Pumping station Wisbech,Cambs. Albert Wheatley was born in 1921 and in 1943 was serving as a navigator on 196 sqn. operating Wellington MK.10 in bombing and Mine laying roles. According to the Squadron operations records in April 1943 he flew 7 operational missions in an all - SNCO crew, 3 on bombing(Mannheim, Duisberg and Stuttgart when his aircraft was "hit when bomb doors open-but all crew safe") and 4 on mine laying on the 28th April 1943, he took off in a Wellington MK.X,HE170 at 20.51 hrs in a close stream of 6 aircraft all on mine laying operation "for get me not" to Kiel.bay North Germany just south of the Denmark Germany border off the Jutland south east coast,at the mouth of the Kiel canal, which carried shipping to Hamburg with access to the river Elbe and the north sea. Two aircraft successfully carried out their mission in clear weather in target area. One failed to find the target area in weather recorded as very low cloud base, raining heavily,unable to pinpoint,Gee(nav equipment) bad due to weather, returning to base and jetisoning their mines of the west coast of Jutland(miles from the target area). The other 3 aircraft are recorded initially missing. But subsequently 2 of them including Wheatleys were discovered having crashed in the target area. As the weather in the target area was recorded as clear by the returning aircraft it is reasonable to conclude that Wheatleys aircraft was lost due to enemy aircraft or surface attack. Wheatley is buried in the Danish cemetary of Abenra onthe south east Jutland coast 25 miles north of the German town of Flensburg. All 5 crew members are buried alongside each other in 4 graves the Bomb aimer and W.OP/AG OCCUPYING ONLY ONLY Grave...