LEST WE FORGET

Air Operations: (No. 458 Squadron Wellington aircraft HZ594), near Corsica, 22 July 1943

Wellington FU – R (HZ594) took off from RAF Protville at 2130 hours on the night of 21/22 July 1943 to carry out an armed reconnaissance west of Sardinia and from Corsica to Toulon, coastwise to Spezia and returning west of Corsica and Sardinia. At 0135 hours a sighting report was broadcast and acknowledged by ‘R’. At 0320 hours the aircraft sent out a message to base ‘request instructions’ and it was directed to return to base. Nothing further was heard from the aircraft and it did not return to base.

The crew members of HZ594 were:

Flying Officer Gerald Louis Barker (J/20378) (RCAF) (Pilot)
Sergeant Lawrence Sidney Hill (1332496) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Leslie Herbert Johnson (1333888) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Frederick Charles Kingston (1384540) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Ivan Kippenberger (413429) (RNZAF) (Navigator)
Sergeant Ronald Wilkinson (1239994) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)

Flying Officer Barker, Sergeant Kippenberger, Sergeant Hill and Sergeant Johnson are missing and have no known graves. Their names are commemorated on the Malta Memorial. Sergeant Wilkinson and Sergeant Kingston are buried in the Bigula War Cemetery, Corsica.

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

Bibliography:

Alexander, P. (Peter) We Find and Destroy: history of No. 458 Squadron, The 458 Squadron Council, 1959

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