LEST WE FORGET
Flight Lieutenant Robert Graham FOX
Service No: 406034
Born: Claremont WA, 5 August 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 25 May 1940
Unit: No. 203 Squadron (RAF), Landing Ground 95, Egypt
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 203 Squadron Wellington aircraft MP740), Egypt, 5 November 1943, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Percival Arthur and Alice Mary Fox, of Swanbourne, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Claremont WA
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
On 5 November 1943, Wellington MP740 flown solo by Flight Lieutenant Fox, on a non-operational day training flight crashed at Landing Ground 95 and he was killed. On the previous day, Flight Lieutenant Fox had been given instruction on the aircraft which to him was a new type. The take off of MP740 was good, but a few minutes later with the wheels retracted, the aircraft dived into the ground from a height of about 500 feet.
In a report on the accident the Station Commander stated “I was the first person at the scene of the accident. From the marks left by the aircraft it appeared that it had either dived or stalled without dropping a wing and caught fire on impact. I spoke to the pilot who had previously given Flight Lieutenant Fox dual instruction on the aircraft. He had instructed Fox to raise the flaps with the aircraft in a nose up attitude. I consider the most likely cause of the accident to be the premature raising of the flaps in a nose up position by a pilot inexperienced on Wellington aircraft. “
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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/32/80
Bibliography:
Ilbery, P.L.T. (Peter Leslie Thomas) (422957) Hatching an Air Force: 2SFTS, 5SFTS, 1BFTS Uranquinty and Wagga Wagga, Banner Books Maryborough QLD 4650, 2002