LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant William Nicholas Pax COSGROVE
Service No: 400140
Born: Randwick NSW, 12 November 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 23 June 1940 (at Melbourne VIC)
Unit: No. 30 Squadron
Died: Aircraft Accident: (No. 30 Squadron Beaufighter aircraft A19-74), Goodenough Island PNG, 11 August 1943, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery PNG
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John and Madeleine Stephanie Cosgrove; husband of Dorothy May Cosgrove, of Elsternwick, Victoria
Roll of Honour: Melbourne VIC
Remembered: Panel 102, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 11 August 1943 Beaufighter A19-74 along with other aircraft was detailed to carry out an offensive sweep off the New Britain coast from Cape Orford to Awnl. At 0500 hours A19-74 crashed just after take-off, seven miles from the airstrip and between Vivigani and Bola Bola, Goodenough Island. Both the crew members were killed.
The crew members of A19-74 were:
Flight Sergeant William Nicholas Pax Cosgrove (400140) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Bernard Albert Le Griffon (3024) (Navigator Wireless)
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
Bibliography:
Ilbery, P.L.T. (Peter Leslie Thomas) (422957) Hatching an Air Force: 2SFTS, 5SFTS, 1BFTS Uranquinty and Wagga Wagga, Banner Books Maryborough QLD 4650, 2002
Parnell, N.M. (Neville M.) Whispering Death: A history of the RAAF’s Beaufighter Squadrons, AH & AW Reed, Terry Hills NSW, 1980
Wilson, S. (Stewart) Beaufort, Beaufighter and Mosquito in Australian Service, Aerospace Publications Weston Creek ACT 2611, 1990