LEST WE FORGET
Flight Lieutenant Patrick Raymond FORD
Service No: 414132
Born: Tenterfield NSW, 7 January 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 16 August 1941 (at Brisbane QLD)
Unit: No. 12 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Wickenby
Died: Air Operations: (No. 12 Squadron Lancaster aircraft W4373), Germany, 12 June 1943, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Edward James Ford and Ethel Rose Ann Margaret Ford, of Goondiwindi, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Goondiwindi QLD
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Lancaster W4373 took off from RAF Wickenby at 2301 hours on the night of 11/12 June 1943 to bomb Dusseldorf, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return. Post war it was established that the aircraft was shot down and crashed in the target area and all the crew members had been killed.
The crew members of W4373 were:
Sergeant Frederick Anderson (626653) (RAF) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Reginald Arthur Charles Avery (1336681) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Lieutenant Patrick Raymond Ford (414132) (Pilot)
Sergeant Myer Harris (953174) (RAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant James Albert Osborn (657839) (RAF) (Navigator)
Sergeant Marcus Walter Stone (1308435) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Geoffrey William Twitty (1235304) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer)
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, 166/14/54