LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer George William WALTERS
Service No: 400744
Born: Kew VIC, 11 February 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 13 October 1940
Unit: No. 515 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Hunsdon
Died: Air Operations: (No. 515 Squadron Defiant aircraft AD651), English Channel, 18 July 1943, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William James Walters and Myrtle Eveleen Walters; husband of Elinor Lindsay Walters, of Coburg, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Kew VIC
Remembered: Panel 190, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 132, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 18 July 1943 Defiant AD651 took off from Hunsdon on patrol over the English Channel. Nothing further was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Another pilot flying a Mosquito aircraft over the Channel observed an aircraft going down in flames into the sea approximately 10 miles away, and a few minutes later obtained a visual on a Focke-Wolfe 150 aircraft and shot it down. It was presumed that AD651 had been shot down by the German aircraft. In 1948 it was recorded that the missing crew had lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of AD651 were:
Warrant Officer George Neil (747849) (RAFVR) (Gunner)
Flying Officer George William Walters (400744) (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, 166/43/263