LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Clifford Thomas POLLARD
Service No: 424606
Born: Thornleigh NSW, 10 December 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 18 September 1942
Unit: No. 103 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Elsham Wolds
Died: Air Operations: (No. 103 Squadron Lancaster aircraft NF999), Germany, 8 January 1945, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Durnbach War Cemetery, Bad Tolz Bayern, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William Wallace Pollard and Winifred May Pollard, of Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Chatswood NSW
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Lancaster NF999 took off from RAF Elsham Wolds at 1821 hours on the night of 7/8 January 1945 detailed to bomb Munich, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it failed to return to base. It was later learned that all the crew members had been killed.
The crew members of NF999 were:
Pilot Officer John William Bickerton (189576) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Eric Walter Evans (1602244) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Robert Alfred Marett (701338) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer Milton Alexander Mathieson (424614) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Clifford Thomas Pollard (424606) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Donald Sleep (3040416) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Hugh Francis Stephens (1398405) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
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, 166/33/280
Bibliography:
Charlwood, D.E.C. (Donald Ernest Cameron) (408794) No Moon Tonight (Angus and Robertson 1956), Penguin Ringwood VIC, 3134, 1991