LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Raymond Oswell WATTS
Service No: 424127
Born: Waverley NSW, 13 March 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 15 August 1942
Unit: No. 207 squadron (RAF), RAF Station Spilsby
Died: Air Operations: (No. 207 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ME631), Germany, 27 April 1944, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Durnbach War Cemetery, Bad Tolz, Bayern, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Archibald Earnest William and Harriet Elizabeth Watts, of Bellevue Hills, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 132, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2111 hours on the night of 26 April 1944 Lancaster ME631 took off from Spilsby detailed to bomb Schweinfurt, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. Following a sustained attack by a night fighter, at least six of the crew jumped from
around 14,000 feet leaving their aircraft to crash in the Black Forest south east of the village of Reichental, 6 kms South east of Gernsbach. Flight Sergeant Watts was killed and the other six crew members became Prisoners of War.
The crew members of ME631 were:
Flying Officer John Archibald Carmichael (J/28975) (RCAF) (Navigator) PoW
Sergeant Henry Tennyson Exley (567104) (RAF) (Flight Engineer) PoW
Flight Sergeant William Allan Griffin (425435) (Rear Gunner) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 11 February 1946
Warrant Officer Lewis Lundi Inganni (646325) (RAF) (Wireless Air Gunner) PoW
Squadron Leader Albert Norman Jones (37503) (RAF) (Pilot) PoW
Flying Officer Albert Alexander Seibel (J/25532) (RCAF) (Air Bomber) PoW
Flight Sergeant Raymond Oswell Watts (424127) (Mid Upper 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, 166/43/632