LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Wallace Bruce BURTON
Service No: 437212
Born: Adelaide SA, 14 February 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 25 November 1942
Unit: No. 1653 Conversion Unit (RAF), RAF Chedburgh, Suffolk
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1653 Conversion Unit Stirling aircraft EE958), Cambridgeshire, 15 May 1944, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Cambridge City Cemetery, Cambridgeshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Gordon Lincoln Burton and of Gladys Mabel Burton, of Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Fitzroy VIC
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: World War II Honour Roll, National War Memorial of SA, North Terrace, Adelaide
On the 15 May 1944, Stirling EE958 took off from RAF Chedburgh at 1627 hours, with the intention of flying to RAF Tuddenham, Suffolk, for circuit practice. The aircraft encountered very severe icing, which in turn led to a serious reduction in power from the starboard engines. Fifteen minutes after take off, the crew crash landed in a wooded area at Banstead Manor, Cheveley, a Cambridgeshire village, 5 kms south east of the Suffolk town of Newmarket. Flying Officer Hughes and Flight Sergeant Burton were killed in the crash and the others were injured.
The crew members of EE 958 were:
Pilot Officer Clifford Aubrey Bender DFC (422382) (Air Bomber) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 9 January 1946
Flight Sergeant Wallace Bruce Burton (437212) (Rear Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant R H Cochrane DFC (J/17277) (RCAF) (Staff Pilot) Injured
Pilot Officer Gordon John Henry Hughes (173818) (RAFVR) (Staff Flight Engineer)
Sergeant F E Hunt (189610) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) Injured
Pilot Officer T J McQuaid (RCAF) (Navigator) Injured (Not listed in NAA Records)
Sergeant Leslie Verdun James (430932) (Mid Upper Gunner) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 1 March 1945
Flying Officer Colin Blackie Noble DFC (424447) (Pilot) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 21 February 1946
Flight Sergeant Maxwell Lloyd Woodland (422823) (Wireless Air Gunner) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 24 September 1945
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Chorley W R, Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 8 Heavy Conversion Units and Miscellaneous Units 1939-1947, Midland Counties Publications UK, 2003
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, 166/6/545