Sergeant Duncan Fleming

Duncan Fleming was born on the 26 August 1911.

He enlisted in The Royal Regiment of Artillery in the Summer of 1939, and upon the completion of his training was posted to the 204th (Oban) Anti-Tank Battery, RA which was part of the 51st (West Highland) Anti-Tank Regiment, RA.

He is likely to have taken part in the 1940 campaign in France and Flanders.

He was still serving with the Battery when it was converted to the Airlanding role on the 23rd October 1942, and thus went with it to North Africa and Italy in 1943.

By September 1944 he was the Troop Sergeant of ‘G’ Troop, 2nd (Oban) Airlanding Anti-Tank Battery, RA.

On Monday, 18 September 1944 he flew in a Horsa glider, flown by glider pilots of No 5 Flight, ‘D’ Squadron, from RAF Blakehill Farm, to LZ ‘X’ near Renkum in Holland as part of the 2nd Lift of Operation ‘Market-Garden’. He landed successfully and he and the rest of ‘G’ Troop moved to the R.V. Point, where they then linked up with the 10th Parachute Battalion, who they were supporting.

He was taken prisoner at ‘The Battle of Arnhem’ and sent to Stalag 8C at Sagan in Poland (POW No. 90729), and then forced marched to Stalag 9B at Wegscheide Bad-Orb, where he died of dysentery on the 27th March 1945, aged 34.

The son of John and Isabella Fleming and the husband of Elizabeth Fleming, of Strachur, Argyllshire, he was originally buried in the Wegscheide POW Cemetery (Roll of Honour, 5th revised edition, 2011). He was re-interred to Durnbach War Cemetery on 30 September 1947, in plot 3D22.

A memorial plaque is situated at:

Kilmelford Parish Church

A816

Kilmelford

Argyll And Bute

Strathclyde

PA34 4XH

Scotland