LEST WE FORGET
Squadron Leader Daniel Edward CREMIN DFC
From Australia serving in the Royal Air Force
Service No: 36128 (RAF)
Born: Paddington NSW, 1917
Enlisted in the RAF: Date Unavailable
Unit: No. 66 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Portreath, Cornwall
Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 66 Squadron Spitfire aircraft AB462), Cornwall, 24 March 1942, Age unavailable
Buried: Wardour Roman Catholic Cemetery, Wiltshire
CWGC Additional Information:
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Supplementary Panel 12, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Squadron Leader Cremin was an Australian Cadet trained for the Royal Air Force and embarked for the UK on 31 December 1937. He enlisted from Redfern, New South Wales.
Spitfires AB496 flown by Sergeant Norman and AB462 flown by Squadron Leader Cremin took off from Portreath detailed to carry out night flying practice. The weather was clear with moonlight. During the practice the aircraft collided in the air. AB462 spun in minus its starboard wing, and AB496 dived vertically into the ground. No parachutes were used and both pilots were killed. AB496 crashed at Frythem Farm in St Erth, Cornwall. A subsequent Court of Inquiry into the accident found “that AB496 had misjudged the distance between itself and AB462 and it collided with the starboard side of the fuselage and main plane of AB462.”
The Pilots were:
Squadron Leader Daniel Edward Cremin DFC (36124) (RAF) (Pilot Spitfire AB462)
Sergeant William David Norman (403315) (Pilot Spitfire AB496)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record AWM76, B124
Newton, Dennis A Few of the Few: Australians and the Battle of Britain, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT 2600, 1990
Bibliography:
RAAF Directorate of Public Relations, These Eagles, Australian War Memorial Canberra, 1942 – Page 132-3