LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Kent Elliott CRAWFORD
Service No: 23484
Born: Brisbane QLD, 12 January 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 29 August 1940
Unit: No. 619 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Dunholme Lodge
Died: Air Operations: (No. 619 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ND986), Germany, 22 June 1944, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of George and Beatrice Annie Crawford; husband of Helen Raeside Crawford, of South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Brisbane QLD
Remembered: Panel 120, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2324 hours on the night of 21 June 1944, Lancaster ND986 took off from Dunholme Lodge detailed to bomb Wesseling, 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 into the Rhine between a road bridge and a rail bridge at Duisberg. All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of ND986 were:
Pilot Officer Kent Elliott Crawford (23484) (Pilot)
Sergeant John Cutting (1880022) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer Keith Alexander Galloway (422277) (RNZAF) (Air Bomber)
Pilot Officer Thomas Edward George Howe (J/88198) (RCAF) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant William Arthur Loose (1591901) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Geoffrey Norman Rakley (178006) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Arthur Roy Ward (1738524) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
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, 166/8/514
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line