LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Bernard Selby WOOLSTENCROFT
Service No: 410826
Born: 6 June 1923, Location unavailable
Enlisted in the RAAF: Date unavailable
Unit: No. 9 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Bardney
Died: Air Operations: (No. 9 Squadron Lancaster aircraft NG235), Germany, 8 April 1945, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Bernard Woodall Woolstencroft and Isobel Selby Woolstencroft, of Newport, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Noojee VIC
Remembered: Panel 133, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1826 hours on the night of 8 April 1945 Lancaster NG235 took off from Bardney to bomb an oil refinery at Lutzkendorf, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. A 1948 Missing Research & Enquiry Unit report stated “the aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed on 8 April 1945 at Kapellendorf which is approximately 6 miles east of
Weimar, Germany. Six of the crew members were killed and one was taken prisoner.
The crew members of NG235 were:
Flight Sergeant Lindsay Arthur Bayley (432092) (Navigator)
Sergeant Geoffrey Terence Greenwood (1593603) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant William Charles Lewis (1607234) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Leslie Robinson (946897) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Christopher Paul Wyeth Warren (165534) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant E Williams (1117559) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner) PoW
Flying Officer Bernard Selby Woolstencroft (410826) (Pilot)
In a POW report Sergeant Williams stated: “Our aircraft was hit by ack-ack a few minutes after leaving the target, and immediately took fire. I heard the Pilot give the order to jump. I could also hear “help” form the forward part of the aircraft. I did not see any of the others bale out. The Germans did not give me any information re the others. The aircraft crashed approximately 10 miles from Lutzkendorf.”
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, 166/44/267