LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Ronald George ASH
From Australia serving in the Royal Air Force
Service No: 43278 (RAF)
Born: Date, Location unavailable
Enlisted in the RAF: Acting Pilot Officer – 10 April 1940
Unit: No. 50 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Lindholme, Yorkshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 50 Squadron Hampden I aircraft X3117), Germany, 12 December 1940, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Fredrick William and Marion Eva Ash, of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Commemorative Roll, Australian War Memorial, Canberra
Pilot Officer Ash was an Australian Cadet accepted for training by the RAF and he embarked for the UK on 12 August 1939.
No. 50 Squadron Hampden aircraft X3117 took off from Lindholme at 2240 hours on 11 December 1940 to attack Mannheim, Germany. The aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed at Tres (Eifel), Germany, and all the crew members were killed.
The crew members of X3117 were:
Flying Officer Ronald George Ash (43278) (RAF) (Second Pilot)
Sergeant Alfred Stanley Atkinson (652440) (RAF) (Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Eric Beck Squibs Liddell (40234) (RAF) (Pilot)
Sergeant Eric McConnell (1755215) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator)
References:
Australian War Memorial Commemorative Roll On-Line Records
Chorley W R Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War Volume 1 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1939-1940, Midland Counties Publications Leicester UK, 1992
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Newton, Dennis A Few of the Few: Australians and the Battle of Britain, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT 2600, 1990