LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer William Lionel GIBBS
Service No: 402922
Born: Shepparton VIC, 29 January 1912
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 November 1940 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 83 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Wyton
Died: Air Operations: (No. 83 Squadron Lancaster aircraft W4955), Netherlands, 13 May 1943, Aged 31 Years
Buried: Amersfoort (Oud Leusden) General Cemetery, Ultrecht, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William Mark and Isabella Daphne Gibbs; husband of Dorothy Jean Gibbs, of Griffith, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Griffith NSW
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Griffith Cenotaph, Griffith NSW
At 0035 hours on the morning of 13 May 1943 Lancaster W4955 took off from Wyton detailed to bomb Duisburg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft was damaged by anti-aircraft fire and later shot down by a night fighter. It crashed at 0217 hours at Eemnes (Ultrecht), 7 kms north east of Hilversum, Holland. Six of the crew members were killed and one was taken prisoner.
The crew members of W4955 were:
Flight Sergeant David Barclay Bourne (967727) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Thomas Robert Cairns (1051616) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Pilot Officer William Lionel Gibbs (402922) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Stanley Alfred Hathaway (1330482) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Horace Plant (1209375) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant Horace D’Arcy Meadows Ransome DFC (404486) (Navigator) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 26 November 1945
Flight Lieutenant Leslie Arthur Rickinson DFC (45901) (RAF) (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, 166/15/47
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line