LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Peter Chadwick BARTLE
Service No: 422103
Born: Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, 9 June 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 25 April 1942 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 1663 Conversion Unit (RAF), RAF Station Rufforth
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1662 Conversion Unit Halifax aircraft DG412), Devon, 27 August 1943, Aged 29 Years
Buried: Heanton Puncharden (St Augustine) Churchyard, Devon
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. C. Bartle, of Waverley, New South Wales, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 118, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On the 27 August 1943 Halifax DG412 took off from Rufforth on a Bullseye training exercise. The Pilot lost control while practising evasive flying, and in the dive that followed, the aircraft came apart under the excessive loads imposed upon its airframe. It was considered almost certain that the crew were trapped by the centrifugal force and their bodies were recovered from the crash site at Langtree, four miles south west of Great Torrigton, Devon. All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of DG412 were:
Flight Sergeant Peter Chadwick Bartle (422103) (Air Gunner)
Flying Officer William Henry Graham (151100) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Hugh Patrick Henry (425158) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Raymond Frederick Stainsby (1528611) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant James Taylor (655553) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant George Rogerson Wheatley (1677247) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant John Peter Williams (1387840) (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, 166/5/264