LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer William Norman Waldron BROWN
Service No: 17786
Born: Albany WA, 28 January 1912
Enlisted in the RAAF: 24 September 1940
Unit: No. 115 Squadron (RAF), RAF Witchford, Cambridgeshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 115 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ND753), Germany, 23 April 1944, Aged 32 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John Joseph Waldron Brown and Grace Agnes Brown; husband of Frances Gertrude Brown, of Albany, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Albany WA
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Lancaster ND753 took off from RAF Witchford at 2302 hours on the night of 22 April 1944, detailed to bomb Dusseldorf, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed at Unterrath in the northern outskirts of Dusseldorf, bursting into flames on impact with the ground and all the crew were killed.
The crew members of ND753 were:
Pilot Officer William Norman Waldron Brown (17786) (Rear Gunner)
Pilot Officer Robert Edward Chantler (172981) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Flying Officer Douglas Drew (145376) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Kenneth Farmer (636504) (RAF) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Warrant Officer II Robert Lewis Francis (R/162649) (RCAF) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Donald Percy Nash (1575026) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer John Burns Tweedie (175327) (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 A9300, BROWN W N W