LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Robert Millar KENNARD
Service No: 422080
Born: Melbourne VIC, 15 July 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 24 April 1942 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 180 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 180 Squadron Mitchell aircraft KJ563), Germany, 21 March 1945, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Clifford Russell Kennard and Ida Nellie Kennard, of Reid, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Roll of Honour: Canberra ACT
Remembered: Panel 125, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: University of Sydney World War II Roll of Honour, Camperdown NSW
Mitchell KJ563 took off on 21 March 1945, along with other aircraft from the Squadron, detailed to attack the marshalling yards at Bocholt, Germany. Nothing was heard from KJ563 after take-off and it failed to return to base. During the attack intense and very heavy anti-aircraft was encountered and the No 2 aircraft in the formation FW236 received a direct hit while releasing its bombs, and an explosion followed. This explosion forced KJ563 which was flying in No 3 position out of control. The port engine was seen to be in flames and there was a large hole in the fuselage near the bomb bay. KJ563 was last seen to be diving steeply. One parachute was observed. KJ563
blew up about 100 feet from the ground when trying to make a forced landing.
The crew members of KJ563 were:
Flying Officer Harry Stewart Chatto (421569) (Navigator / Bomb Aimer)
Flying Officer Leslie Albert Ellis (422151) (Wireless Operator Air)
Flight Sergeant John Milton Farr (422472) (Air Gunner) Baled out, PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 8 July 1946
Flying Officer Robert Millar Kennard (422080) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Farr later reported “We were hit by flak and immediately caught fire. No one panicked and Ellis advised the Skipper we were on fire. The Skipper said bale out. Why no other crew member did not escape I cannot say, especially Ellis who was the waist gunner. The Germans told me that although our aircraft was a mass of flames, the pilot tried to make a forced landing but it blew up when 100 feet off the deck.”
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, 166/22/461
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line