LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Raymond Haines LEONARD
Service No: 416436
Born: Berri SA, 6 July 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 23 June 1941
Unit: No. 156 Squadron (RAF), RAF Upwood, Cambridgeshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 156 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ND534), Germany, 11 September 1944, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Thomas Daniel and Phillis Jean Leonard, of Berri, South Australia.
Roll of Honour: Berri SA
Remembered: Panel 125, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: World War II Honour Roll, National War Memorial of SA, North Terrace, Adelaide
Lancaster ND534 took off from RAF Upwood at 1654 hours on the night of 11th September 1944, detailed to bomb Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed at 1830 hours some 3 kms west of the target area. All the crew members were killed
The crew members of ND534 were:
Pilot Officer John Alfred Brooks (182033) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Raymond Haines Leonard (416436) (Rear Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant Alexander Millar (114578) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Squadron Leader Anthony William Raw DFC (67624) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Flight Lieutenant Charles William Reeves (172236) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Squadron Leader Geoffrey Alan Ritchie Undrell (84710) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Flight Sergeant Norman Warwick (1103095) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
W R Chorley records that “Squadron Leader Raw had completed at least 34 sorties and his crew were experienced Pathfinders.”
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, Midlands Counties publications Leicester UK, 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, 166/24/536