LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Phillip Crocker BUCKNELL
Service No: 403441
Born: Moree NSW, 17 February 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 6 January 1941
Unit: No. 6 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 6 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit Hudson aircraft T9333), North Atlantic, 8 March 1942, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Keith Edman Bucknell and Laurie Adela Bucknell, of Graman, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Inverell NSW
Remembered: Panel 112, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Moree War Memorial Hall- World War Two Honour Rolls, Moree NSW
Brother of Sergeant Brian Wentworth Bucknell (402768)
At 2040 hours on 8 March 1942 Hudson T9333 took off on a night training exercise over the sea, from which the aircraft failed to return. Although an unknown aircraft was heard over the wireless telegraph, this was not however identified with T9333. Following post war enquiries and investigations, it was recorded in 1949 that the missing crew members had lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of T9333 were:
Sergeant Phillip Crocker Bucknell (4034410) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Derek Maitland Hall (403473) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Sergeant Thomas Colin Wills (402898) (Pilot)
Sergeant Isaac Sidney Woolf (1375840) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
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, 163/94/196
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line