LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Leslie Hendrik BIESIOT
Service No: 427370
Born: Albany WA, 28 November 1913
Enlisted in the RAAF: 6 July 1942
Unit: No. 1651 Conversion Unit (RAF), RAF Wratting Common, Cambridgeshire
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1651 Conversion Unit Stirling aircraft LK501), Cambridgeshire, 30 September 1944, Aged 30 Years
Buried: Cambridge City Cemetery, Cambridgeshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Hendrik and Hilda Maud Biesiot; husband of Lorna Josephine Biesiot, of South Fremantle, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Perth WA
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
On the 30th September 1944, Stirling LK501 took off from RAF Wratting Common at 1940 hours, detailed to carry out a non-operational training flight tasked for a flashlight sortie, but about five minutes after take off, the aircraft crashed at Horse Heath, about 12 miles south east of Cambridge. Five of the crew were killed and two were injured, one fatally. An Inquiry into the accident found that : “An examination of the wreck disclosed that the cause of the accident was a technical failure. Ruptured right studs holding down No 6 cylinder of the port outer engine. The cylinder bore loose and the resulting damage caused the aircraft to crash.”
The crew members of LK501 were:
Pilot Officer Leslie Hendrik Biesiot (427370) (Pilot)
Sergeant Gilbert Crozier (2213869) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner) Died of injuries
Sergeant Jack Dare (1652040) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Sidney Frank Davies (1605840) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Bernard Thomas Francis Johnson (426747) (Air Bomber) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 8 March 1946
Sergeant Harry Stephenson (1684795) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Alec Sidney Titchener (1896743) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
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, 166/5/721