LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer George Alfred SKINNER
Service No: 425232
Born: Murwillumbah NSW, 21 November 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 31 January 1942 (at Brisbane QLD)
Unit: No. 44 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Dunholme Lodge
Died: Air Operations: (No. 44 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ND573), France, 21 April 1944, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of George Walter and Marion Eileen Skinner, of Murwillumbah, New South Wales, Australia. Instructor, Surf Life Saving Assn. of Australia
Roll of Honour: Murwillumbah NSW
Remembered: Panel 259, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2214 hours on 20 April 1944 Lancaster ND573 took off from Dunholme Lodge to attack the railway yards at La Chappelle. La Chappelle is located in the Department of the Seine at Oise, France. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Following post war enquiries and investigations, it was believed that the aircraft crashed at Morsang-Sur-Orge and that it exploded on impact. No bodies could however be located, and in 1950 the missing crew members were recorded as having no known graves.
The crew members of ND573 were:
Sergeant Alan Farmer (2204356) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant William Thomas Freeman (917954) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant David Prewer (1681110) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant John Younger Scott (1568179) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant William George Singfield (1261285) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer George Alfred Skinner (425232) (Pilot)
Sergeant Thomas Dudley Ward (1579650) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/Air)
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, 166/37/376