LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Selwyn George De VIS
Service No: 423449
Born: Brisbane QLD, 11 July 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 30 June 1942 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 77 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Full Sutton
Died: Prisoner of War (Murdered) (from the loss of No. 77 Squadron Halifax aircraft RG529 on 19 March 1945), Germany, 19 March 1945, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Frederick Selwyn de Vis and Hazel Doreen Victoria de Vis, of Magill, South Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 121, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 0047 hours on the morning of 19 March 1945 Halifax RG529 took off from Full Sutton detailed to bomb Witten, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. RG529 crashed at Merklinde, 4 kms west of Dortmund and all the crew members lost their lives. W R Chorley records the following “Oliver Clutton-Brock suggests all baled out in the vicinity of Opladen, only to be shot within hours of being captured. Three Germans, at least, were implicated for their part in this crime and one, Lieutenant Karl Schaefer, received a fifteen year prison sentence. Of the other two, one escaped before being brought to trial and the other was subsequently executed.”
The crew members of RG529 were:
Pilot Officer John Alexander Anderson (195050) (RAFVR) (Navigator) Murdered 19 March 1945
Pilot Officer Selwyn George De Vis (423449) (Wireless Operator Air) Murdered 19 March 1945
Flight Sergeant James Dyke (2221046) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner) Murdered 19 March 1945
Pilot Officer William James Edwards (195404) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner) Murdered 19 March 1945
Pilot Officer Thomas MacDonald Kerr (191000) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber) Murdered 19 March 1945
Sergeant Robert Alan Clark Pearce (1593715) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) Murdered 19 March 1945
Flight Lieutenant Edwin Ward (162829) (RAFVR) (Pilot) Murdered 19 March 1945
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Chorley W R, Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 6 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1945, Midland Counties Publications UK, 1998
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/9/572