LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Reginald John BUCIRDE
Service No: 419567
Born: East Brunswick VIC, 8 May 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 4 September 1942
Unit: No. 100 Squadron (RAF), RAF Grimsby, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 100 Squadron Lancaster aircraft LM 622), North West Europe, 26 August 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Reginald Wallis Bucirde and Dora Kathleen Bucirde, of East Brunswick, Victoria, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Melbourne VIC
Remembered: Panel 260, Runnymede Memorial Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Lancaster LM 622 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 LM 622 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, 166/6/673