LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Geoffrey Thomas HEARD
Service No: 400708
Born: Willaura VIC, 23 December 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 13 October 1940
Unit: No. 7 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Oakington
Died: Air Operations: (No. 7 Squadron Stirling aircraft N3709), Netherlands, 26 March 1942, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Gendringen Roman Catholic Cemetery, Gelderland, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Walter Cory Bromell Heard and Ethel Lillian Heard, of Willaura, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Willaura VIC
Remembered: Panel 123, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2017 hours on the night of 26 March 1942 Stirling N3709 took off from Oakington to bomb Essen, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Post war it was established that the aircraft was shot down by a night fighter and crashed at 2301 hours at Gendringen (Gelderland), Netherlands, and all the crew members had been killed.
The crew members of N3709 were:
Sergeant Edward Leslie Belk (571310) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Wing Commander John Henry Abel Chapman (32097) (RAF) (Pilot)
Sergeant Ivor Bertie Dopson (932116) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Thomas Kenneth Haynes (102967) (RAFVR) (Observer)
Flying Officer Geoffrey Thomas Heard (400708) (Pilot)
Sergeant Howard Inman (1022097) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Donald Esmond Alan Rendtorff (918821) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
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, 163/35/173