LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Roslyn Downs LEAKE
Service No: 424422
Born: manly NSW, 3 January 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 12 September 1942
Unit: No. 622 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Mildenhall
Died: Air Operations (No. 622 Squadron Lancaster aircraft HK644), Germany, 6 November 1944, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfal, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Clifton Downs Leake and Elsie Margaret Leake, of Manly, New South Wales, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Manly NSW
Remembered: Panel 125, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Manly ANZAC War Memorial, Manly NSW
At 1655 hours on the night of 6 November 1944, Lancaster HK644 took off from Mildenhall detailed to bomb Koblenz, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. A Missing Research and Enquiry team later reported: “the aircraft crashed at Koblenz on the 6th November 1944.” All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of HK644 were:
Sergeant Peter Edwin Bell (1606089) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Ronald George Hawkes (1876684) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Arthur Hoy (1670542) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Robert Hunter (1826736) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Harold Frederick Jones (54704) (RAF) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Roslyn Downs Leake (424422) (Pilot)
Sergeant Terence Brendon O’Donnell (1652692) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant John Daly Robertson (1565047) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
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, 166/24/584
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line