LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Robert Leslie Owen RYDER
Service No: 404626
Born: Toowoomba QLD, 31 January 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 October 1940
Unit: No. 75 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Feltwell
Died: Air Operations: Bomber Command 1941-2 (No. 75 Squadron Wellington aircraft Z8942), Netherlands, 8 November 1941, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Rotterdam (Crooswijk) General Cemetery, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Arthur Owen and Florence Gardiner Ryder; husband of Marjorie Ryder, of Roma, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Roma QLD
Remembered: Panel 129, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On the night of 8 November 1941Wellington Z8942 took off from Feltwell detailed to bomb Essen, Germany. A wireless message was received from the aircraft approximately 3 hours after it left base. Nothing further was heard from the aircraft and it failed to return to base. Z8942 was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed at 2215 hours at Zuidcand (Zuid Holland), 20 kms south west of Rotterdam. Five of the crew members were killed and one became a Prisoner of War.
The crew members of Z8942 were:
Flying Officer Ralph Owen Foster (402443) (RNZAF) (Second Pilot)
Warrant Officer Lawrence Beresford Hamilton Hope (40940) (RNZAF) (Air Gunner) PoW: Killed in allied air raid: 19 April 1945
Sergeant Sir Charles Thomas Hewitt Mappin (1380356) (RAFVR) (Second Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant James Henry Reid (997006) (RAFVR) (First Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Robert Leslie Owen Ryder (404626) (Observer)
Sergeant John Stephen Wilson (402530) (RNZAF) (Pilot)
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, 166/55/141