LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Charles Douglas CRAWLEY
From Australia serving in the Royal Air Force
Service No: 41380 (RAF)
Born: Location, Date unavailable
Enlisted in the RAF: Date unavailable
Unit: No. 44 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Waddington, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations: The First Ten Months (No. 44 Squadron Hampden I aircraft P4286), Netherlands, 15 May 1940, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Oosterhout Protestant Cemetery, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles Eustace Finlay Crawley and Margaret Crawley, of Caulfield, Victoria, Australia B.A. Hons. (University of Melbourne)
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Hampden P4286 took off from Waddington to attack Breda. The aircraft crashed at Oosterhout (Noord-Brabant), 8 km north east of Breda, Holland, killing all four crew members.
The crew members of P4286 were:
Flying Officer Leslie James Ashfield (40198) (RAF) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Charles Douglas Crawley (41380) (RAF) (Observer)
Sergeant Francis Wallace McKinlay (581187) (RAF) (Wireless Operator)
Corporal Frank Preston (551160) (RAF) (Air Gunner)
References:
Chorley, W.R. Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War Volume 1 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1939-1940, Midland Counties Publications UK, 1992
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records