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Taylor , David Lacey (D L)

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Identity
Person No.
33216
Old ROH no.
2146
Service No.
P1/40529
Last Name
First Name
David Lacey
Initials
D L
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
19
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,781
Killed in action
Cause of Death
Killed in action, in North American F-51 Mustang #320. Six aircraft, led by Commandant Dick Clifton, were tasked with flak suppression during a series of 18 Fighter Bomber Wing attacks on the railway between Sunchon and Kuadong-ni, also known as 'Butterfly Bend'. While making their attack, the flight was bounced by a number of enemy MiG-15 aircraft, and 2Lt D.L. Taylor, in the No.4 position, was hit between the mainplane and fuselage as he pulled away from the target. He immediately headed south with his aircraft streaming black smoke and glycol, while the remainder of the flight attempted to cover his retreat. However, two MiG's made a series of quarter attacks, forcing the Mustangs to turn towards them, while another MiG tried to sneak up on the Mustangs from below. The latter was spotted by Lt Joubert, and his warning enabled the formation to break to port just as the MiG opened fire, causing him to miss as he passed the formation in a shallow climb. Lt Enslin, in the No.6 position, fired a long burst into the port wing root of the MiG, which proved enough to convince the remaining enemy aircraft to break off the combat and head for home. Later analysis of Lt Enslin's gun camera footage confirmed that he had hit the MiG, and he was credited with a damaged MiG-15. Unfortunately, in the skirmish the flight had lost sight of 2Lt Taylor's aircraft, and he was never seen again
Military Service
Branch
Air Force
Rank
Lieutenant
Unit
Unknown
Secondary Unit
Army
Defence Force
UDF 24,808
Union Defence Force
Location
Locality
Unknown
Grave Reference
Memorial
Notes

ref. 85 years of SAAF

Research notes

Locality was wrongly set to "Gauteng" -- corrected 28 Aug 2026 (second pass, this time verified against Cemetery rather than AddInfo text, after the first AddInfo-based pass was found to be unreliable and reverted). This person's own Cemetery is unambiguously outside South Africa; several other people at the same cemetery already correctly show a blank Locality. Cleared rather than guessed at a specific region.
5 Sep 2026: Unit "2 Squadron" (a squadron, SAAF's regiment-equivalent) promoted to Regiment, per John's decision. Corps (South African Air Force) unchanged.

Citations
Unknown
External References
Stories 1
on 02 July 2001 · via source
Six aircraft, led by Commandant Dick Clifton, were tasked with flak suppression during a series of 18 Fighter Bomber Wing attacks on the railway between Sunchon and Kuadong-ni, also known as 'Butterfly Bend'. While making their attack, the flight was bounced by a number of enemy MiG-15 aircraft, and 2Lt D.L. Taylor, in the No.4 position, was hit between the mainplane and fuselage as he pulled away from the target. He immediately headed south with his aircraft streaming black smoke and glycol, while the remainder of the flight attempted to cover his retreat. However, two MiG's made a series of quarter attacks, forcing the Mustangs to turn towards them, while another MiG tried to sneak up on the Mustangs from below. The latter was spotted by Lt Joubert, and his warning enabled the formation to break to port just as the MiG opened fire, causing him to miss as he passed the formation in a shallow climb. Lt Enslin, in the No.6 position, fired a long burst into the port wing root of the MiG, which proved enough to convince the remaining enemy aircraft to break off the combat and head for home. Later analysis of Lt Enslin's gun camera footage confirmed that he had hit the MiG, and he was credited with a damaged MiG-15. Unfortunately, in the skirmish the flight had lost sight of 2Lt Taylor's aircraft, and he was never seen again.
Dedications

No dedications have been added yet.