LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Paul Ernest WHITEHEAD
Service No: 408942
Born: Toorak VIC, 30 June 1911
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 June 1941
Unit: No. 75 Squadron
Died: Aircraft Accident: (No. 75 Squadron Kittyhawk aircraft A29-470), Kiriwina PNG, 21 October 1943, Aged 32 Years
Buried: Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery PNG
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Francis Ernest and Rose Ann Whitehead; husband of Margaret Helene Whitehead, of Corowa, New South Wales
Roll of Honour: Corowa NSW
Remembered: Panel 104, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Coreen District Roll of Honour, Daysdale NSW
Squadron Leader Geoffrey Charles Atherton DFC & Bar (408030) (Discharged: 28 June 1946) reported: “at 1930 hours on the 21 October 1943, I was standing on the south airstrip at Kiriwina, watching No. 75 Squadron aircraft land from Vivigani. It was almost dark, when A29-470 approached and landed. The aircraft continued to run down the airstrip and was within 200 yards from the end of the strip, when A29-449 piloted by Flight Sergeant Reginald Arthur Faddy (422154) in A29-449 approached very fast without flaps, touched down half way along the strip and collided with A29-470. Both aircraft burst into flames and Flying Officer Whitehead was killed. Had A29-449 not collided with A29-470, it would almost certainly have run off the northern end of the strip and crashed.” Flight Sergeant Faddy was burned in the crash and was discharged from the RAAF on 24 January 1947.
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, 166/43/391
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line