LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Frederick William MORGAN
Service No: 412618
Born: Orange NSW, 26 March 1913
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 July 1941
Unit: No. 12 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Wickenby
Died: Air Operations: (No. 12 Squadron Lancaster aircraft W4366), Germany, 14 May 1943, Aged 30 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Frederick Walter and Clara Belle Morgan, of Forbes, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Forbes NSW
Remembered: Panel 127, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Lancaster W4366 took off from RAF Wickenby at 2329 hours on the night of 13/14 May 1943 to bomb Bochum, Germany. Nothing was hard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. It was later established that the aircraft crashed at Scherlebeck near Gelsenkirchen, Germany, and that three crew members had been killed and four taken prisoner.
The crew members of W4366 were:
Sergeant Kenneth Foster (1061305) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant G L Fountain (1600221) (RAFVR) (Navigator) PoW
Sergeant R Maginnis (1218718) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner) PoW
Flight Sergeant Frederick William Morgan (412618) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant John Reginald Richmond (R/114345) (RCAF) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant G T Spiece (R/14395) (RCAF) (Rear Gunner) PoW
Sergeant K J G Walker (657567) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer) PoW
Sergeant Maginnis later reported that ‘he had left the aircraft before Morgan and he believed that Morgan was killed in the crash’.
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, 166/28/70