LEST WE FORGET
Warrant Officer Alfred Leonard LAMBERT
Service No: 409318
Born: Carlton VIC, 2 January 1919
Enlisted in the RAAF: 15 August 1941
Unit: No. 97 Squadron (RAF), RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 97 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ME625), Lincolnshire, 23 June 1944, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Cambridge City Cemetery, Cambridgeshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John Leo and Rhoda Lambert; husband of Stella Irene Case Lambert, of Eastwood, New South Wales, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Camberwell VIC
Remembered: Panel 125, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
No. 97 Squadron Lancasters ME625 and ND981 collided while engaged in formation flying practice. ME 25 spun out of control and crashed at Cloor House farm on Deeping Fen and all eight crew members were killed. ND981 broke up in the air and five of the six all-RAF crew members were killed.
The crew members of ME625 were:
Flying Officer Alan Arnold (410136) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Royston George Davies (1315090) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Maurice Durn (1622745) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Lieutenant John David Fletcher (115198) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Warrant Officer Alfred Leonard Lambert (409318) (Air Bomber)
Flight Sergeant Eric Henry Peace (1434302) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant Henry Stuart van Raalte (415220) (Pilot)
Flying Officer David Gethin Williams (78568) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
The crew members of ND981 were:
Sergeant Cowan (RAF) Survived
Sergeant Frank Ernest Coxhead (1583248) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant John Fairbairn (1456224) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Flight Lieutenant William James Hunt (152730) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Warrant Officer Dennis Gilbert Partos DFM (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant Edward Leslie John Perkins (53366) (RAF) (Pilot)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Chorley W R Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War – Volume 5 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1944, Midland Counties Publications, 1997
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/24/485