LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Martin Michael CORCORAN
Service No: 414769
Born: Brisbane QLD, 8 July 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 9 November 1941
Unit: No. 640 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Leconfield
Died: Air Operations: (No. 640 Squadron Halifax aircraft LW549), Germany, 31 March 1944, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Michael J. Corcoran and Ann M. G. Corcoran, of Canungra, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Canungra QLD
Remembered: Panel 120, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2211 hours on the night of the 30 March 1944, Halifax LW549 took off from Leconfield detailed to bomb Nuremberg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. When outbound the aircraft was shot down by an ME110 and it crashed at olferbutt, a village on the west bank of the Ochse, 6 kms south south east of Vache. Four of the crew members were killed and three became Prisoners of War.
The crew members of LW549 were:
Flying Officer John Austen (145520) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner) PoW
Flight Sergeant Kevin Alexander Bush (410590) (Rear Gunner) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 24 October 1945
Flying Officer Martin Michael Corcoran (414769) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Dennis George Cutler (1391319) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant James Henderson (1108757) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner) PoW
Flying Officer James Dutton Laidlaw (J/23294) (RCAF) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Frederick William Shuttle (174066) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
In a POW report Flight Sergeant Bush stated: “The aircraft was attacked by night fighters. I gave the Pilot the correct evasive action to take and opened fire on the nearest fighter. My guns went out of action. After about ten minutes the Flight Engineer reported that the two starboard motors were hit and on fire. The Captain ordered parachutes on and then bale out. This was acknowledged by all except the Navigator who was wounded in the back and unable to bale out. All were still in the aircraft when I left at about 12,000 feet. The aircraft was out of control I came down in a field with only one boot on. I walked over a hill and was taken prisoner by farmers. Also Henderson and Austen. I landed near a village called Vache.”
Flying Officer Austen stated: “Pilot Officer Corcoran was in the aircraft before I abandoned and he was slightly wounded. The Germans said that he had been killed in the crash.”
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, 166/8/415