In case the link 'breaks' (as they are wont to do), here's what the Toronto Sun said about Howard's WWII story.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2009/04/19/9161911-sun.html
News World
Monument to actor Howard
(AP) 4-19-09

MADRID -- ... Leslie Howard will be honoured as a war hero with a monument in Spain near where his plane was shot down by Nazi fighter pilots during the Second World War, a historical association said yesterday.

The ... sculpture will [bear] the names of those who died aboard the commercial flight from Portugal to Britain in 1943 ...    .

Association president Manuel Santiago Arenas Roca said the London-born Howard joined the Allies and campaigned hard against the Axis powers.

NEGATIVE IMPACT
... Germany's government at the time apparently was worried about the negative impact the high-profile actor-director's anti-Nazi publicity was having on its cause.

... KLM flight 777 ... was downed by a squadron of Junkers 88 fighter planes, said Ximena, who believes [Howard] had been on "a secret mission" to stop Spain joining Germany and Italy in combat.

Spain, under the power of fascist dictator Gen. Francisco Franco, had formed an alliance with Adolf Hitler's Nazi government, which based Luftwaffe warplanes on its soil.

CONTRIBUTION

The author said Howard's contribution to winning the war is in danger of being forgotten.
Most of the books relating to his untimely death were published in the 1950s, and the association wants to pay tribute to a man who put his fame and communication skills to work combatting Nazi propaganda.

...

Ximena said there was considerable evidence that Howard was targeted specifically, thus becoming a war hero.