LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Russell Walter BRINDLEY
Service No: 401229
Born: Caulfield VIC, 8 March 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 5 January 1941
Unit: No. 158 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station East Moor
Died: Air Operations: (No. 158 Squadron Halifax aircraft W7753), Germany, 14 July 1942, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of George French Brindley and Ethel Gay Brindley, of Camberwell, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Camberwell VIC
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 0005 hours on the morning of 14 July 1942 Halifax W7753 took off from East Moor detailed to bomb Duisberg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed into the rear garden of a house in the Brauch und Middelicherstrasse, Resse in the northern suburbs of Gelsenkirchen. All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of W9953 were:
Pilot Officer Leslie Elmer Bradbury (122322) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Russell Walter Brindley (401229) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Aubrey John Fromings (1162831) (RAFVR) (Observer)
Sergeant Eric George Kendall (1380281) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Reginald Alfred Petherbridge (106152) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Peter Roy (632784) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant William James Smart (R/92605) (RCAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant William Walton (1104554) (RAFVR) (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, 163/93/585