LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Robert Paul Scott BROWN
Service No: 434615
Born: Sydney NSW, 13 July 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 1 January 1943 (at Brisbane QLD)
Unit: No. 78 Squadron
Died: Air Operations: (No. 78 Squadron Kittyhawk aircraft A29-464), Vogelkop Peninsula, 10 August 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Robert Henry and Eleanor Brown, of Bowen Hills, Queensland
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 7, Lae Memorial PNG
Remembered: Panel 104, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 10 August 1944, Kittyhawk A29-464 flown by Flight Sergeant was reported missing in the Vogelkop area, Dutch New Guinea. The aircraft was one of nine aircraft which commenced a strafing run on Saoekoren Village at 1035 hours. A29-464 was seen to pull out of its dive, but when the aircraft formed up for the return trip home, A29-464 was missing. Two aircraft searched the area for two hours, but no trace was found of the missing aircraft or pilot. A RAAF Search party found the wreck of the aircraft after the war. It was near the Saoekoren village on the north coast of the Vogelkop Peninsula, on the edge of a swamp and had sunk into the soft ground. Flight Sergeant Brown’s remains were not found.
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, 166/6/658; A9845, 158