LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Howard Garfield YEO
Service No: 409268
Born: Armadale VIC, 26 January 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 July 1941
Unit: No. 12 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Wickenby
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 12 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ED968), Lincolnshire, 25 June 1943, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Watford Cemetery, Hertfordshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Richard James Garfield Yeo and Elizabeth Ellen Yeo, of Ascot Vale, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Essendon VIC
Remembered: Panel 133, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Lancaster ED968 took off from RAF Wickenby on the night of 25 June 1943 on a non-operational training flight during which the aircraft was witnessed by an Observer Post to shed a port aileron and port outer wing independently when in flight. The aircraft disintegrated and crashed approximately 10 miles from the aerodrome at Stenigot, which is 5 miles south west of Louth, Lincolnshire. All the crew members were killed in the crash.
The crew members of ED 968 were:
Sergeant Maurice Robert Aston (1394397) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant George Adam Hiddleston (656250) (RAF) (Bomb Aimer)
Flight Sergeant John Stanley Rennick (R/99592) (RCAF) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Charles William Robinson (578359) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Reginald Sneesby (1381732) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Paul Soluk (R/130819) (RCAF) (Rear Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Howard Garfield Yeo (409268) (Pilot)
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, 166/45/17