LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Weston Robert BERRY
Service No: 33396
Born: Allison NSW, 5 March 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 26 August 1940
Unit: No. 12 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Wickenby
Died: Air Operations: Radar Bombing Offensive (No. 12 Squadron Lancaster I aircraft W4791), Netherlands, 12 June 1943, Aged 29
Buried: Beverwijk General Cemetery, Noord Holland, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Raymond George and Florence Matilda Berry, of Dungog, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Dungog NSW
Remembered: Panel 118, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Dungog and District Honour Roll 1939-1945, Dungog NSW
At 2327 hours on the night of 11 June 1943 Lancaster W4791 took off from RAF Wickenby to bomb Dusseldorf, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Post war it was established that the aircraft was shot down by anti-aircraft fire and crashed on sand dunes known locally as Paasduin at Wijk-aan-Zee (Noord Holland), 5 kms west of Beverwijk. All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of W4791 were:
Flight Sergeant Weston Robert Berry (33396) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant William Edward Cunliffe (1453475) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Keith Benedict Davidson (R/115668) (RCAF) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Alan Arthur Gill (1452106) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Frederick Norman Pink (1284001) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Horace Shepherd (1114117) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Leslie Stephenson (620520) (RAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
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, 166/5/182
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line