LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Kenneth Herbert William KIRKLAND
Service No: 412972
Born: Bellingen NSW, 7 January 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 15 August 1941
Unit: No. 106 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Metheringham
Died: Air Operations: (No. 106 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ND336), North Sea, 30 January 1944, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Vlieland General Cemetery, Friesland, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Herbert William and Muriel Ethel Kirkland, of Bellingen, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Bellingen NSW
Remembered: Panel 125, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Bellingen War Memorial, Bellingen NSW
At 1719 hours on the night of 30 January 1944 Lancaster ND336 took off from Metheringham detailed to bomb Berlin. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. It was believed that the aircraft crashed into the North Sea. The body of Pilot Officer Kirkland was washed ashore on the 5 March 1944 on Nordstrand on Vlieland in the Dutch Frisian Island chain. The other crew members are unrecovered.
The crew members of ND336 were:
Sergeant Kenneth Walter Barry (1490130) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Robert John Charters (1348547) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer John Inston (151635) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Pilot Officer Kenneth Herbert William Kirkland (412872) (Pilot)
Sergeant William George Mann (1584717) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Donald Naylor (1433131) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Robert John Winfindale (2208906) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper 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, 166/22/182
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line