LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Keith Edward DARE
Service No: 401369
Born: Oakleigh VIC, 12 June 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 2 February 1941
Unit: No. 106 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Coningsby
Died: Air Operations: (No. 106 Squadron Lancaster aircraft R5861), North Sea, 9 July 1942, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Percival Edgar and Nellie Beatrice Dare; husband of Mary Muriel Dare, of Parkville, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Melbourne VIC
Remembered: Panel 112, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 121, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2359 hours on 8 July 1942 Lancaster R5861 took off from Coningsby to attack Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Sergeant Curtis’s body was recovered from the sea near Delfzijl, Netherlands, and Sergeant Woolner’s remains were washed ashore on the Island of Nordeney in the East Frisian Group of Islands on the north west coast of Germany. In 1948 it was recorded that the remaining missing crew members had lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of R5861 were:
Pilot Officer Kenneth James Broderick (115109) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant William Henry Curtis (921828) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Keith Edward Dare (401369) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Sergeant Ottiwell Francis Lodge (1379704) (RAFVR)
Sergeant William Leslie Schlater Rees (978350) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Sidney Arthur Roberts (932145) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Robert Ward Woolner (R/80999) (RCAF)
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, 163/100/225