LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Donald Carlos GORDON DFC
Service No: 418944
Born: Warrnambool VIC, 13 April 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 June 1942
Unit: No. 1 Aircraft Depot, RAAF Station Laverton VIC
Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), 23 March 1945
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1 Aircraft Deport Spitfire aircraft A58-622), Geelong VIC, 4 October 1945, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Geelong Eastern Cemetery VIC
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Carlos and Alexa Gordon, of Cudgee
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 113, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
DFC Citation (for service with No. 514 Squadron RAF): Flying Officer Gordon has completed many successful operational sorties as captain of aircraft. The sorties have included day and night attacks against some of the most heavily defended targets in Germany. In July 1944 during an attack on Stuttgart, the aircraft was attacked no less than four times by hostile fighters and Flyng Officer Gordon’s combat manoeuvres were so successfully executed that the aircraft escaped unscathed and the mission was successfully completed. Throughout his tour, this officer displayed courage and determination of a high order”. (London Gazette 23 March 1945 page 1598)
At 1333 hours on 4 October 1945, Spitfire A58-622 flown by Flying Officer Gordon struck a low bank when endeavouring to pull out of a dive and crashed on the foreshore at Corio Bay near the Geelong Grammar School and he was killed.
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, 166/16/816