LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Kent Oswald Thompson SUMMERVILLE
Service No: 404465
Born: Beaudesert QLD, 15 January 1919
Enlisted in the RAAF: 13 September 1940
Unit: No. 50 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Swinderby
Died: Air Operations: (No. 50 Squadron Lancaster aircraft R5902), Lubeck Bay, 12 October 1942, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Percy Howard Summerville and Eva Jessie Summerville, of Beechmont, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Beaudesert QLD
Remembered: Panel 113, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 131, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1805 hours on the night of 12 October 1942 Lancaster R5902 took off from Swinderby to attack Wismar, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off, and it failed to return to base. It was later established that the aircraft had crashed in Lubeck Bay at 2145 hours some 10 miles from the east coast and approximately 34 miles south east of Kiel and Lubeck. One crew members was rescued and the body of another crew member was washed ashore while the other missing crew members have no known graves.
The crew members of R5902 were:
Sergeant Alan Dabbs (1057233) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Sergeant Frederick Verdun Dacey (1325318) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Raymond Albert Wilfred Hacker (641680) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Terence McKerrow (402528) (O211225) (Navigator) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 1 November 1945
Sergeant Sydney Harold Parker (1330940) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Michael Howard Rawlins (1234574) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Kent Oswald Thompson Summerville (404465) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
In a later statement Sergeant McKerrow reported that “he had no information concerning the fate of the six other crew members other than the body of Sergeant Hacker had been washed up in Lubeck Bay in November 1942, and that to the best of his knowledge all other members were killed. After the plane was hit it went into a tight spin, with the pilot trying to pull it out. The inter com was unserviceable and he put on his parachute and was bending down for the parachutes of the pilot and engineer, when there was as explosion. He blacked out, and can’t remember anything more until he came to falling in the air. He pulled the rip cord, landed in the sea, and a German launch picked him up. A search of the area failed to find any other survivors. He believed the aircraft had blown up.”
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, 163/164/135