LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Claude Desmond PAULINE
Service No: 423007
Born: Paddington NSW, 11 August 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 15 June 1942
Unit: No. 57 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station East Kirkby
Died: Air Operations: (No. 57 Squadron Lancaster aircraft NG398), Germany, 14 March 1945, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Durnbach War Cemetery, Bad Tolz, Bayern Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of George William and Esther Hannah Pauline, of North Bondi, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1700 hours on the night of 14 March 1945. Lancaster NG398 took off from East Kirkby detailed
to bomb the Wintershall synthetic oil plant at Lutzkendorf, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. It was later established that the aircraft crashed at Ettlingen, which is approximately 4 miles south east of Karstuhe, Germany and that all the crew members had been killed.
The crew members of NG398 were:
Flight Sergeant Gordon Cartwright (1489925) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Flight Sergeant Raphael Michael Cocozza (1890967) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air)
Sergeant John Davies (2211499) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Clifford Frederick John Hole (1322482) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flying Officer Claude Desmond Pauline (423007) (Pilot)
Sergeant Charles Quinn Rafferty (2219105) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant James Frederick Shearon (1897280) (RAFVR) (Rear 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, 166/32/701