LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Thomas Colin WILLS
Service No: 402898
Born: Orange NSW, 3 February 1912
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 November 1940
Unit: No. 6 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 6 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit Hudson aircraft T9333), North Atlantic, 8 March 1942, Aged 30 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Alfred John Ernest Wills, and of Olive Mary Ann Wills, of Dee Why, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Manly NSW
Remembered: Panel 113, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 132, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Manly ANZAC War Memorial, Manly NSW
At 2040 hours on 8 March 1942 Hudson T9333 took off on a night training exercise over the sea, from which the aircraft failed to return. Although an unknown aircraft was heard over the wireless telegraph, this was not however identified with T9333. Following post war enquiries and investigations, it was recorded in 1949 that the missing crew members had lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of T9333 were:
Sergeant Phillip Crocker Bucknell (4034410) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Derek Maitland Hall (403473) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Sergeant Thomas Colin Wills (402898) (Pilot)
Sergeant Isaac Sidney Woolf (1375840) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
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, 163/178/284
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line