LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer William Ronald PHILLIPS
Service No: 407079
Born: Adelaide SA, 10 July 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 27 May 1940
Unit: No. 3 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Martlesham Heath, Suffolk
Died: Air Operations (No. 3 Squadron Hurricane IIA aircraft 2748), Suffolk, 28 May 1941, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Ipswich Old Cemetery, Suffolk UK
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Herbert Leslie and Gertrude Janeatta Phillips, of Payneham, South Australia
Roll of Honour: Payneham SA
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: World War II Honour Roll, National War Memorial of SA, North Terrace, Adelaide
Hurricane 2748 flown by Pilot Officer Phillips together with another aircraft had been on an operational patrol over the Thames Estuary, and was returning to Martlesham Heath a little after 1400 hours on the afternoon of 28 May 1941.
Both aircraft circled down from a considerable height to about 4,000 feet at which Phillip’s aircraft made a short left hand turn. Then instead of following the other aircraft in to land, the nose of the machine turned towards the ground with the engine full on and in an almost perpendicular dive crashed on the north side of Oakwood in the Parish of Little Bealings near Woodbridge, Suffolk.
The aircraft was in good order and had been flying for some two hours on the patrol and there had been no contact with the enemy. It was impossible to give any reason for the crash in which Pilot Officer Phillips was killed.
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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A9300, PHILLIPS R W