LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Charles Alfred BARLOW
Service No: 427790
Born: Wagin WA, 17 August 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 6 October 1942
Unit: No. 115 Squadron (RAF), RAF Witchford, Cambridgeshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 115 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ND913), Netherlands, 21 July 1944, Aged 19 Years
Buried: Papendrecht General Cemetery, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles Percival and Beatrice Adeline Barlow, of Mount Hawthorn, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Perth WA
Remembered: Panel 118, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Lancaster ND913 took off from RAF Witchford at 2330 hours on the night of 20/21st July 1944, detailed to bomb a synthetic oil plant at Homberg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed at 0145 hours on the 21st July at Papendrecht (Zuid-Holland) on the north bank of the De Merwede and opposite Dordrecht and all the crew were killed.
The crew members of ND913 were:
Flight Sergeant Charles Alfred Barlow (427790) (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer Colin Mervyn Clarey (426312) (Pilot)
Sergeant Douglas Hancock (1337513) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Samuel Edward Kirkland (1581273) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Edward John Line (1579769) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Herbert Charles Luton (542814) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Arthur Walter Middleton (1569017) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/5/624