LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Robert Lorraine MELVILLE
Service No: 400637
Born: Orange NSW, 14 May 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 14 October 1940
Unit: No. 15 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Wyton
Died: Air Operations: (No. 15 Squadron Stirling aircraft W7524), Denmark, 16 July 1942, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Esbjerg (Fourfelt) Cemetery, Denmark
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William Charles and Mabel Maud Melville, of Coogee, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 127, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1840 hours on 16 July 1942 Stirling W7524 took off from Wyton in an attempt to bomb Lubeck, Germany, using cloud cover and the approaching dusk. The aircraft was shot down by anti-aircraft fire at 2130 hours and crashed in the tidal area of the River Sneum, 8kms south-east of Esbjerg. Six of the crew members were killed in the crash and two became Prisoners of War.
The crew members of W7524 were:
Pilot Officer Kenneth Arnott (126850) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Denis Robert Barrett (1254392) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)
Sergeant G A Donovan (1284610) (RAFVR) (Front Gunner) PoW
Sergeant Henry James Ian Lockhart (991121) (RAFVR) (First Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant L C Masfen (798462) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner) PoW
Pilot Officer Robert Lorraine Melville (400637) (Pilot)
Sergeant Robinson Nicholls (525236) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant John Evan Francis Waylan (9631670 (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, 163/143/91