by No. 200 Flight's commanding officer, Squadron Leader Harold Graham Pockley, disappeared on its way back to base with the loss of the 11 man crew and a British SOE officer, Major Henry. E. Ellis, who was attached to Z Special Unit. The two remaining Australian Liberators and United States Navy aircraft searched for this B-24 for two days, but did not locate its wreckage and returned to Leyburn on 30 March. No. 200 Flight continued to support Z Special Unit's operations (designated 'Semut 1') around Bario for the next few months, and eventually flew in 30 of the 42 personnel involved. Wing Commander E. V. Read succeeded Pockley on 15 April. No. 200 Flight continued supporting AIB operations until the end of the war. On the night of 15/16 April three of its aircraft dropped personnel assigned to the Semut 2 operation in Borneo. It subsequently flew over 30 operations to drop AIB personnel and supplies in Borneo, Ambon, Lombok, Sumatra and Timor. These operations were successful, though the flight was hampered by the difficulty of locating its drop zones and inadequate support from the Australian First Tactical Air Force at Morotai, its main forward operational base. No. 200 Flight lost a further two B-24s in these operations; one was possibly shot down over Timor on 17 May and the other crashed either in or off the coast of north Borneo on or about 21 May. At least 46 men, including Z Special Unit operatives, were killed in the three aircraft which were lost, and this represented the highest loss rate of any of the RAAF's B-24 equipped units. No. 200 Flight continued flying after the end of the war on 15 August 1945. It continued dropping AIB operatives and supplies until mid-October whereupon it was used to fly AIB personnel from Bougainville Island and Finschafen in New Guinea to Australia as well as to conduct courier flights. Mechanical problems were increasingly encountered in this period as a result of experienced personnel being discharged. No. 200 Flight's last sorties were made to drop leaflets and the unit was disbanded on 15 December 1945. See also B-24 Liberators in Australian service References Bibliography Further reading 200 200 Military units and formations established in 1945 200