LEST WE FORGET
Warrant Officer Brian William GORMAN
Service No: 409108
Born: Armadale VIC, 4 July 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 19 July 1941
Unit: No. 453 Squadron, Detachment RAF Station Sumburgh, Shetland
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 453 Squadron Spitfire aircraft MK281), Aberdeenshire, 18 March 1944, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Longside Cemetery, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Hadden and Annie Marsden Colles Gorman, of Caulfield, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Caulfield VIC
Remembered: Panel 105, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
While in transit to the UK, Warrant Officer Gorman, together with Flight Sergeant Cecil Gordon Eckersley (416210), Flight Sergeant Victor William Manuel (401986) and Flight Lieutenant John Blight Suttor DFC (411969) (Discharged: 30 November 1945), were in the troop ship Oronsay that was torpedoed off the African Coast on 9 October 1942. They were rescued and interned by Vichy French authorities in Dakar and then freed on 15 December 1942.
At 1030 hours on 18 March 1944, Spitfire MK281 flown by Warrant Officer Gorman crashed at the Inverurie Station, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and he was killed. The aircraft was engaged in a non-operational air bombing training exercise. It went into a steep turn at approximately 1000 feet, which lasted for about 360 degrees. The aircraft then flicked on its back, spun and failed to recover from the ensuing spin in time to pull out of its dive, and crashed and burst into flames.
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, 163/118/522
Bibliography:
Winter, V.A. (Vincent Adams) (408547) Noble Six Hundred: the story of the Empire Air Training Scheme with special reference to Australians who trained in Southern Rhodesia, V.A. Winter Brighton VIC 3186