LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Raymond Gavin CRISFORD
Service No: 421576
Born: Charleville QLD, 7 November 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 28 February 1942 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 157 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Swannington
Died: Air Operations (No. 157 Squadron Mosquito aircraft MM650), Germany, 15 March 1945, Aged 29 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Harold Gavin Crisford and Adele Crisford; husband of Gladys Mary Crisford, of Bondi, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 120, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1930 hours on 15 March 1945 Mosquito MM650 took off from Swannington , detailed to carry out a bomber support patrol and escort bombers to their target at Lutzendorf, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. A Missing Research and Enquiry team later reported: “The aircraft crashed two miles from Kralingen, which is 32 miles from Koblenz, Germany.” The crew members were killed.
The crew members of MM650 were:
Pilot Officer Raymond Gavin Crisford (421576) (Navigator/Radio)
Pilot Officer Bruce English Miller (420232) (Pilot)
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, 166/8/916