LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Ronald Walter MITCHELL
Service No: 442280
Born: Adelaide SA, 7 August 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 22 May 1943
Unit: No. 30 Operational Training Unit (RAF), RAF Hixon, Staffordshire
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 30 Operational Training Unit Wellington aircraft HE853), off the UK Coast, 8 January 1945, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Elijah Frederick and Hilda Myrtle Mitchell, of Prospect, South Australia.
Roll of Honour: Adelaide SA
Remembered: Panel 284, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 127, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: World War II Honour Roll, National War Memorial of SA, North Terrace, Adelaide
On 8 January 1945, Wellington HE853 took off from RAF Hixon for a navigation exercise. At 1416 hours, the aircraft report its position as 51.53N 004.43W and then nothing further was heard from the aircraft and it did not return to base.
The crew members of HE853 were:
Sergeant Ronald Keith Mortimer Lewis (1398953) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Thomas Samuel McLouglin (107338) (RAFVR)
Flight Sergeant Ronald Walter Mitchell (442280)
Sergeant Thomas Richard William Vincent (1445017) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Charles William Woods (1398131) (RAFVR)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Chorley W R Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War Volume 7 Operational Training Units 1940-1947, Midland Publishing, 2002
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, 166/27/727