Regiment: R.A.F..
Died: 06 September 1944 aged 29 in Germany. Missing, presumed killed.
Cemetery: Sage War Cemetery 3. D. 15.
Son of Harry and Jessie Bromley, 7 Bedford Av., Bexhill-on-Sea.
School Prefect. Shooting VIII, 1931-33.
Cranwell.
Husband of Betsy Maude Bromley, of South Croydon, Surrey.
169 Sqdn. Royal Air Force
The squadron flew Mosquito II night fighters from January 1944 and commenced night intruder operations against German night fighters.
The following appreciation is from The Times, Feb. 1945:— Wing Commander Niel Ballingal Reid Bromley, O.B.E., D.F.C., missing in September last, now officially reported killed, was the younger son of Captain and Mrs. Harry Bromley, of Haldon Priors, Torquay. Born in 1914 in South Africa, he was educated at Malvern. He entered Cranwell as a cadet in 1933 and was commissioned as pilot officer in July, 1935, to No. 32 (Fighter) Squadron. From 1936, however, he served with fighter squadrons in the Fleet Air Arm, and was at sea in the carriers Furious, Home Fleet, and Glorious, Mediterranean. In 1940, he was mentioned in dispatches for services in connexion with the campaign in Norway. He was made an O.B.E. in January, 1944, and the next May was given command of a squadron. The announcement of the award to him of the D.F.C. was made in October, soon after he was reported missing, the citation describing him as "a fine and inspiring leader". He had completed many sorties and had destroyed three enemy aircraft.
He returned from leave on the 3rd September 1944, and 3 days later, on the 6th September, 6 operational sorties took off from Gt. Massingham before midnight, however 'the Commanding Officer, W/Cdr. N.B.R. Bromley, OBE, with his navigator F/L. P. V. Truscott did not return. (Aircraft PZ.230).'
Squadron operation records: AIR-27_1094_33
It seems he was shot down over Northern Germany near Bremen.