LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer William Samuel BAXTER
Service No: 418333
Born: Numurkah VIC, 15 September 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 22 May 1942
Unit: No. 7 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Oakington
Died: Air Operations: (No. 7 Squadron Lancaster aircraft PB180), Baltic Sea, 27 August 1944, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Kiel War Cemetery, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Samuel and Annie Jane Baxter, of Picola, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Numurkah VIC
Remembered: Panel 118, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2003 hours on the night of 26 August 1944 Lancaster PB180 took off from Oakington to bomb Kiel, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. Post war enquiries established that the aircraft crashed in the Baltic Sea and all the crew members were killed. Four bodies were recovered.
The crew members of PB180 were:
Pilot Officer William Samuel Baxter (418333) (Bomb Aimer)
Pilot Officer James Frederick Butson (178809) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer David Ralston Fisher (419789) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Marcus George Godfray DFM (1807618) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant William Bagley Smaill DFC (42504) (RNZAF) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Norman Twell (1674832) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Albert Kenneth Wooliscroft (1583652) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
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, 166/5/663
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line