LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Ernest Arthur DENNIS
Service No: 405175
Born: Emerald QLD, 28 March 1912
Enlisted in the RAAF: 2 February 1941
Unit: No. 50 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Skellingthorpe
Died: Air Operations: (No. 50 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ED753), Netherlands, 26 July 1943, Aged 31 Years
Buried: Uden War Cemetery, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: on of Ernest and Jean McAdam Dennis, of Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Rockhampton QLD
Remembered: Panel 121, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2149 hours on the night of 25 July 1943 Lancaster ED753 took off from Skellingthorpe detailed to bomb Essen, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. It was later established that the aircraft was shot down by a night fighter and crashed at
0055 hours on 26 July 1943 near Wijchen (Gelderland), 6 kms west south west of Nijmegan,
Netherlands. Five of the crew members were killed and three were taken prisoner.
The crew members of ED753 were:
Warrant Officer Leslie Thomas Beck (155341) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Ernest Arthur Dennis (405175) (Pilot)
Flying Officer Edwin Dan Pym Every (408293) (Second Pilot) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 12 October 1945
Sergeant Gordon Leslie Hill (1350603) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant H Rogerson (531582) (RAF) (Flight Engineer) PoW
Flight Sergeant Anthony George Tanner (551240) (RAF) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Reginald Toulson (1337153) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Pilot Officer R F Young (146159) (RAFVR) (Navigator) PoW
Flight Lieutenant Every later reported “In the first attack by fighters at 21,000 feet, the port motors were set on fire then most of the aircraft in the second attack. I was in the WOP position whilst waiting for the Nav to go when the aircraft went into a steep forward dive which threw me to the floor. I became unconscious and came to falling through the air. I pulled the parachute and landed safely. No news re the others but since learnt that the Nav and self were only ones alive. The aircraft crashed near the German/Dutch border south east of Nijmegan. Received help from civilians and told to go to Rotterdam. I walked for 7 days and then captured by Dutch police in Herovarden, a small village on the Rhine.”
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, 166/9/130
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line