LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Donald Clarence KIRKWOOD
Service No: 21714
Born: Gladesville NSW, 24 July 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 5 February 1941
Unit: No. 30 Squadron
Died: Air Raid while Prisoner of War: (from the loss of No. 30 Squadron Beaufighter aircraft A19-141 on 17 December 1943), New Britain, 5 March 1944, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Rabaul (Bita Paka) War Cemetery PNG
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Robert Jeffrey and Dorothy Alma Kirkwood; husband of Mary Douglas Kirkwood, of Smithfield, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Smithfield NSW
Remembered: Panel 102, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 0520 hours on the l7 December 1943, Beaufighter A19-141 took off from Kiriwina north airstrip, being one of two aircraft detailed to carry out an offensive barge sweep from Cape Roas to Cape Hoskins on the north coast of New Britain. On reaching Cape Roas at 0635 hours, a large hulk was seen on a reef approximately one mile from the shore. A19-141 was seen to make an attack (presumably a dummy run) while A19-54 flew 500 feet above and about 400 yards behind. When A19-141 pulled away on a climbing left hand turn, A19-54 dived for a similar attack on the hulk. On pulling away from the target, A19-54 could see no sign of A19-l41. A19-54 searched the vicinity of Cape Raos, and then completed the sweep thinking that A19-141 had flown ahead towards Cape Hoskins. On completing the sweep A18-54 called A19-141 on radio at 0705 hours but there was no response. It was later established that A19-141 had crashed and both of the crew were Prisoners in Rabaul. They were both in a group of eight RAAF members who were killed in an Allied bombing of Talili, New Britain on the 5 March 1944.
The crew members of A19-141 were:
Flight Sergeant Donald Clarence Kirkwood (21714) (Navigator Wireless)
Flight Sergeant Colin Esbert Wein (414975) (Pilot)
The RAAF members killed in the air raid on 5 March 1944 were:
Corporal John Fenwick (22532) (No. 11 Squadron)
Flight Sergeant Donald Clarence Kirkwood (21714) (No. 30 Squadron)
Sergeant Ernest Hubert Kraehe (27791) (No. 11 Squadron)
Flight Sergeant Henry Laurence Murphy (412621) (No. 11 squadron)
Flying Officer Frank Ronald Pocknee (401663) (No. 11 Squadron)
Flight Sergeant Gordon Ronald Thomas (417011) (No. 22 Squadron)
Flight Sergeant Colin Esbert Wein (414975) (No. 30 Squadron)
Sergeant Fred Woolley (43098) (No. 11 Squadron)
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, 166/22/105; A9845, 19
Bibliography:
Parnell, N.M. (Neville M.) Whispering Death: A history of the RAAF’s Beaufighter Squadrons, AH & AW Reed, Terry Hills NSW, 1980
Wilson, S. (Stewart) Beaufort, Beaufighter and Mosquito in Australian Service, Aerospace Publications Weston Creek ACT 2611, 1990