Sergeant Ronald Miller

Ronald Miller was born and lived in Glamorgan, he enlisted in the Royal Artillery and volunteered for airborne forces.

Sergeant Miller was posted to 1st Special Air Service Regiment, Army Air Corps.

Sergeant Ronald Miller was part of a 16-man troop of ‘A’ Squadron 1st Special Air Service commanded by Lt. Leslie George Cairns.
The 16 SAS troops together with the 6-man crew of Short Stirling LJ850 (620 Sqdn RAF) were killed when the aircraft came down on its return from an aborted resupply mission as part of Operation Houndsworth.
Aircraft LJ850, together with two other Short Stirlings, was to drop their passengers on the La Valottes DZ in the Morvan mountains about 120 miles ESE of Orleans. However, due to low cloud they could not locate the DZ and turned back for home – RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
No-one knows what happened to LJ850, though officially it was assumed she came down in the English Channel.

The RAF crew are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

• P/O Robert William Crane RAAF - Pilot
• F/Sgt Frank Norman Johnson RAFVR
• WO2 John Percy Clasper RCAF
• Sgt David Wynne Evans RAFVR
• F/Sgt Granville William Stopford RAFVR
• F/Sgt Benjamin James Profit RCAF

The Sixteen SAS troops are commemorated on the Bayeux Memorial, (Panel 18, Column 2.)

• Private James Fleming Spiers Arbuckle
• Private John Seymour Bowen
• Lance Corporal Harold Brook
• Corporal William Bryson
• Lieutenant Leslie George Cairns
• Private William John Creaney
• Private Donald Maurice Gale
• Private George Malgwyn Hayes
• Private George Dalton Law
• Corporal William Leadbetter
• Private Charles Macfarlane
• Private Dominic Mcbride
• Serjeant Ronald Miller
• Private James O'reilly
• Private John Kenneth Rogers
• Serjeant Reginald Josiah Wortley

Another pilot of the same squadron on the same operation, reported, that Stirling LJ 850 was seen to crash into a hillside whilst it was making its run in to the DZ. He also stated that the aircraft did not catch fire.

Post-war investigation found no trace of the aircraft, but their efforts were complicated by the witness passing a private communication to the next-of-kin of one of the LJ850 crewmembers (F/Sgt Frank Johnson) that he had seen LJ850 crash into high ground in the Savoy Hills, over 100 miles from the Morvan Mountains.

However, another source (namely Dennis Williams, the author of the book "Stirlings in Action with Airborne Forces") states that the “last known position [of the aircraft], from a radio fix plotted at 0050 hrs, was over the channel, outbound for France. This Stirling almost certainly went down in the sea, with its crew of six, and one officer and fourteen* men of 1 SAS. Last known position of LJ850: 49deg58minN 00deg39minW at 0050 hours.”

*Several accounts state 15 SAS men not 16 - Serjeant Reginald Josiah Wortley (One of the SAS founder members) may have been a “Passenger” not taking part in the actual operation)

Sgt. Ronald Miller and Sgt. David Evans grew up less than 8 miles from one-another.