LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Robert Douglas JONES
Service No: 430615
Born: Warrnambool VIC, 20 December 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 26 Februray 1943
Unit: No. 12 Operational Training Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 12 Operational Training Unit Wellington aircraft LP625), Wiltshire, 18 September 1944, Aged 19 Years
Buried: Bath (Haycombe) Cemetery, Somerset
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Robert John and Maidie Jones, of Grassmere, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Warrnambool VIC
Remembered: Panel 124, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2024 hours on the night of 18 September 1944 Wellington LP625 took off from RAF Chipping Warden detailed to carry out a night cross-country training exercise. While the aircraft was in flight an engine caught fire and a distress call was broadcast. At 2139 hours the aircraft crash landed at on Colerne airfield in Wiltshire but careered off the runway and collided with a No. 409 Squadron (RAF) Beaufighter and a Mosquito belonging to No. 488 Squadron (RNZAF), wrecking both. By now totally out of control the aircraft finished up some huts near one of the dispersal areas. Two of the crew members were killed and the others either injured or uninjured.
The crew members of LP625 were:
Flight Sergeant Robert DePledge Crabtree (419855) (Pilot) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 7 August 1945
Sergeant Downie (2210706) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) Uninjured
Flight Sergeant Robert Douglas Jones (430615) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Leslie Howard Kilby (1650202) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Loker (625337) (RAF) (Air Gunner) Injured
Sergeant Wood (1494586) (RAF) (Bomb Aimer) Injured
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: 166/21/197