LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Cyril Ashley ROSE
Service No: 14464
Born: Bellingen NSW, 19 February 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 15 April 1940
Unit: No. 156 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Upwood
Died: Air Operations: (No. 156 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ND466), Germany, 31 March 1944, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Albert Victor and Lily Tighe Rose, of Penrith, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Penrith NSW
Remembered: Panel 129, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2230 hours on the night of 30 March 1944 Lancaster ND466 took off from Upwood detailed to bomb Nuremberg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. When outbound and just started on the run up to the target, ND466 was shot down by an ME110 aircraft and crashed at Eisfeld, a small town on the east bank of the Werra, 19 kms north north west of Coburg, Germany. Four of the crew members were killed and four became Prisoners of War.
The crew members of ND466 were:
Warrant Officer John Charles Baxter DFM (1251251) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flying Officer Herbert Charles Frost (138508) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Warrant Officer Victor Gardner DFM (627184) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Squadron Leader P R Goodwin (100622) (RAFVR) (Pilot) PoW
Flying Officer W C Isted (135024) (RAFVR) (Under Training Visual Marker) PoW
Pilot Officer Cyril Ashley Rose (14464) (Flight Engineer)
Flying Officer J V Scrivener (J/22068) (RCAF) (Second Navigator) PoW
Flying Officer E H J Summers (147112) (RAFVR) (Navigator) PoW
Flying Officer Summers in his PoW report stated “I last saw Rose prior to my own departure from the aircraft. Since then the German authorities informed me that there were four bodies out of the crew of eight and four of the crew were safe.”
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, 166/36/204