LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Keith Alexander PRICE
Service No: 413659
Born: Kensington NSW, 19 November 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 12 September 1941
Unit: No. 150 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 150 Squadron Wellington aircraft HF700), Algeria, 30 April 1943, Aged 20 Years
Buried: El Alia Cemetery, Algeria
CWGC Additional Information: Son of David Herbert and Isabella Amy Price, of Kensington, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 129, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Wellington HF700 or HF720 took off on the night of 29/30 April 1943 on a night operational bombing mission. The aircraft was returning from the mission at dawn in conditions of poor visibility and low cloud with a base of 800 feet. The aircraft must have failed to get a pin point on the coast and flew into mountains and crashed 8 miles east of Blida aerodrome, near Souma, Algeria. All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of HF700 were:
Pilot Officer James Dobie Aitchison DFC (134337) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Maurice Thomas Dilworth (1334863) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant John Campbell Leckie DFM (R/133390) (RCAF) (Pilot)
Sergeant George Thomas Powell (1457568) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Keith Alexander Price (413659) (Air Bomber)
A later report on the Flying Accident stated: “The crew must have failed to get a pin point on the coast. Crews have repeatedly warned in the past of the need to get a pin point on the coast because of the closeness of the mountains, and all crews have again been warned.”
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, 166/33/34