Sergeant Dennis Robbins was killed when his Lancaster bomber was shot down over France a month before Mrs Buckler was born.

Today, in the village of Vieux-Mesnil, which lies on France’s border with Belgium, she will visit his grave for the first time.

Before leaving for France earlier this week, Mrs Buckler said the trip was one of mixed emotion.

“I have always wanted to go to visit my father’s grave and when I received an invitation from the village written in French about a memorial dedication I just knew I had to be there,” Mrs Buckler said.

“I didn’t know much about the circumstances surrounding dad’s death, as it was something mum just never spoke about about,” she said.

Members of the Vieux-Mesnil community sent Mrs Buckler the invitation to take part in today’s dedication ceremony after another family member visited Sergeant Robbins’ grave in 1999. They also left a brief message in the church visitors’ book which enabled Yvonne Lambert, who lives in nearby Maubeuge, to track Mrs Buckler down.

“I am sure there will be tears but it is just so important to me now to be there,” Mrs Buckler said.

Sergeant Robbins was one of seven crewman who died when they were shot down, with the pilot of the aircraft, Captain Arthur Harold Probert, aged 25 and the youngest, Sgt. William George Hogg, a mid-upper gunner, aged just 19.

The German pilot Helmut Bergman later reported he opened fire on the bomber when it was one hundred metres away.

“Violent flames were coming from the fuselage and wings and it crashed and burned for two hours and 20 minutes,” he said.

The Lancaster bomber, which was part of the 460 Squadron of the RAAF, took off from RAF Binbrook at 11.40pm on April 10, 1944 to bomb the railway junction and marshalling yards at Aulnoye in France.

The plane, carrying 12 1,000 lb bombs, was intercepted by the German aircraft and shot down at 2.30am the next day, crashing and burning in a field near the village of Vieux-Mesnil near Maubeuge on the River Sambre .

All the crew, including Mrs Buckler’s father, were killed instantly, with the bodies of six of the crew including Sgt. Robbins found in the burned-out wreckage, while another body was found outside the aircraft.

The crew’s bodies, including Mrs Buckler’s father’s, were taken to Maubeuge cemetery, where they were buried in the British Section in a service conducted by a local French pastor.

He now lies in grave marked No. 60.

It was Yvonne Lambert, who lives in Maubeuge, who read the simple message placed in the church at Vieux-Mesnil in 1999 and began placing flowers on the grave of Sgt Robbins to honour the memory of his sacrifice and started the process to contact Mrs Buckler.

It will be a poignant first meeting as Mrs Lambert and Mrs Buckler embrace to remember Sgt. Robbins.