LEST WE FORGET
Warrant Officer David Lancaster WATSON
Service No: 430076
Born: Melbourne VIC, 2 September 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 4 December 1942
Unit: No. 17 Operational Training Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 17 Operational Training Unit Wellington aircraft HE688), Yorkshire, 23 March 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Harrogate (Stonefall), Cemetery, Yorkshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Maj. Charles Eric Watson, M.C., and Daisy Clarke Watson, of East St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Coburg VIC
Remembered: Panel 132, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1915 hours on 23 March 1944, Wellington HE688 took off from Silverstone for an evening cross country training exercise. The Pilot lost control due to the port engine failing, and while trying to arrest the steep dive, the aircraft broke up at 2105 hours and crashed almost vertically to the east of Little Beach Hill near Ellerback, about four miles east north east of Northallerton, Yorkshire. All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of HE688 were:
Flight Sergeant Bertram John Jones (424299) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Ernest Percy Moore (1586101) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Dennis Gwylin Stephens (3011102) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Edward Nigel Jeffreys Thomson (416552) (RNZAF) (Pilot)
Warrant Officer David Lancaster Watson (430076) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Benjamin Woodhead (1685947) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
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, 166/43/568