LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Albert Norman James BILLING
Service No: 436283
Born: Port Melbourne VIC, 1 January 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 3 December 1942 (at Perth WA)
Unit: No. 100 Squadron (RAF), RAF Grimsby, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 100 Squadron Lancaster aircraft LM622), North West Europe, 26 August 1944, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Kiel War Cemetery, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Norman John Silas and Lydia Jane Billing, of Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Port Melbourne VIC
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Lancaster LM622 of 100 Squadron took off from RAF Station Grimsby at 2030 hours on the night of 26 August 1944 to attack targets at Kiel, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Eighteen Lancasters from various Squadrons were lost on this raid on Kiel.
The crew members of LM622 were:
Flight Sergeant Albert Norman James Billing (436283) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Reginald John Bucirde (419567) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Darrell Owen Connolly (429218) (Air Bomber)
Flying Officer Kenneth Millett Hutchins (422956) (Pilot)
Flying Officer James Standish Leigh (434296) (Navigator)
Flying Officer Kenneth Roy Rogers DFC (171085) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Reginald Henry Watts (1851033) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Following post war enquiries and investigations, it was recorded in 1949 that Flight Sergeant Bucirde had lost his life at sea. The bodies of the other six crew members were washed ashore and identified on various parts of the west coast of Schleswig–Holstein and on small islands off the coast.
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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/5/664