LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant George Francis AYRE
Service No: 433081
Born: Burton-on-Trent, England, 11 October 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 25 February 1943 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 692 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Graveley
Died: Air Operations (No. 692 Squadron Mosquito aircraft MM128), Belgium, 15 January 1945, Aged 29 Years
Buried: Schoonselhof Cemetery, Antwerpen, Belgium
CWGC Additional Information: Son of George Charles and Florence May Ayre, of Lane Cove, New South Wales, Australia. A.I.C.A.
Roll of Honour: Lane Cove NSW
Remembered: Panel 118, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2106 hours on the night of 14 January 1945, Mosquito MM128 took off from Graveley detailed to bomb Berlin. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed and hit the ground almost vertically, the engines cockpit and the majority of the aircraft was buried. Both the crew members were killed.
The crew members of MM128 were:
Flight Sergeant George Francis Ayre (433081) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Flying Officer George Raymond Peter Chaundy DFM (161264) (RAFVR) (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, 166/4/188