LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Alexander Anthony CHRISTIE
Service No: 432485
Born: Leichardt NSW, 30 September 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 2 January 1943
Unit: No. 90 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Tuddenham
Died: Air Operations (No. 90 Squadron Lancaster aircraft HK664), Belgium, 23 December 1944, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Hotton War Cemetery, Hotton, Luxembourg, Belgium
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Telemac and Frances Thomasene Christie, of Earlwood, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Leichardt NSW
Remembered: Panel 120, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: University of Sydney World War 2 Roll of Honour, Camperdown NSW
Remembered: Leichardt Memorial, Leichardt NSW
At 1420 hours on 23 December 1944 Lancaster HK664 took off from Tuddenham to attack Trier, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Post war enquiries established that a captured document of a German Parachute Anti-Aircraft Regiment indicated that HK 664 had been shot down by the Regiment on 23 December and the aircraft had crashed at Echternach, 17 miles north east of Luxembourg, Belgium, on the River Sure. All the crew members had been killed but only four bodies were recovered.
The crew members of HK664 were:
Sergeant Edward Charles Allison (2220851) (RAFVR) (Mid Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Norman Collis Boyd (430112) (Wireless Operator Air)
Flying Officer Alexander Anthony Christie (432485) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Frederick William Clinch (2210367) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Flight Sergeant John Reginald Ennor (1339743) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flying Officer Herbert George Floyd (161272) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Warrant Officer I Robert William Gibson (R/131971) (RCAF) (Mid Under Gunner)
Sergeant John Manning (2203524) (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 Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/7/767 (file shows on NAA as Chamberlain Noel Austin (15786))
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line