LEST WE FORGET
Corporal Reginald Stanley BURDUS
Service No: 26379
Born: Parramatta NSW, 18 August 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 27 April 1940 (at Adelaide SA)
Unit: No. 3 Squadron, Libya
Died: Air Raid, Libya, 6 April 1941, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Thomas Aubrey and Irene Amelia Burdus, of Grange, South Australia
Roll of Honour: Adelaide SA
Remembered: Column 246, Alamein Memorial, Egypt
Remembered: Panel 98, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: World War II Honour Roll, National War Memorial of SA, North Terrace, Adelaide
No. 3 Squadron left Got es Sultan at 11 p.m. on 3rd April and losing two vehicles during the night in accidents on the choked roads, reached Maraua at 11 o’clock the following morning. Twenty-four hours later they were on the road again bound for Martuba, which was reached at 6 p .m. on the 5th, two cooking trailers having been abandoned on the way. Four hours later they were ordered back to Gazala, but even there no respite was found, for instructions awaited them to withdraw after one day’s operations to Sidi Mahmud, five miles south of Tobruk. Accordingly, late on the 6th the road convoy was again moving eastwards, and as the solid ground of the Jebel Achdar had now been left behind, the discomfort of a severe dust storm added to the normal difficulty of night travel.
Extracts from Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Against Germany and Italy 1939-1943, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1954 – Page 73
No. 3 Squadron’s ground crews were at the front of the allied battle line at the time of Corporal Burdus’s death and he was killed during a low flying attack by enemy aircraft on a road convoy.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
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, 163/94/87
Bibliography:
Brown, R. (Russell) Desert Warriors Australian P-40 Pilots at War in the Middle East and North Africa 1941-1943, Banner Books Maryborough QLD 4652, 2000