LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Charles Carol BRADLEY MID (Twice)
Service No: 404024
Born: Brisbane QLD, 4 March 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 26 April 1940
Unit: No. 297 Squadron (RAF)
Awarded the Mentioned in Despatches (Twice)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 297 Squadron Tiger Moth aircraft DE303), near Brize Norton, 11 March 1944, Aged 30 Years
Buried: Black Bourton (or Burton Abbots) (St Mary) Churchyard, Oxfordshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles Leslie and Sylvia Stella Bradley, of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; husband of Beryl Margaret Bradley, of Duntisbourne, Gloucestershire, England
Roll of Honour: Brisbane QLD
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1125 hours on 11 March 1944, Tiger Moth DE303 crashed while carrying out a non-operational day flight transferring the aircraft as part of the move of the Squadron to Brize Norton. Both the crew members were killed.
The crew members of DE303 were:
Pilot Officer Charles Carol Bradley MID (Twice) (404024) (Navigator Bomb Aimer) Supernumerary
Flight Lieutenant Clement Hugh Lawton James (64299) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
The Commanding Officer of 297 Squadron reported: “as a part of the Squadron move to Brize Norton, it was necessary to fly the Squadron Tiger Moth there. During the morning I was flying to Brize Norton myself in the Albermarle when I saw a light aircraft doing aerobatics at 2 or 3 miles off my port quarter. I was flying at about 1800 feet and this aircraft was ahead of three Oxford and heading across my track. I estimated its height at 3/400 feet above me. I saw the aircraft complete one loop and I think it completed a “Roll off the Top”. My attention was distracted momentarily looking after my own aircraft, and when I next saw this aircraft which I identified as a Tiger Moth, it appeared to be spinning inverted at about 500 feet. It seemed to spin for about a turn and a half and slide and strike the ground almost vertically. James was flying the aircraft from the rear cockpit and his passenger Bradley was map reading. The cause of the accident was the Pilot carrying out unauthorised aerobatics at too low an altitude, thereby contravening flying regulations.”
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 Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/6/443