LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Kerry Gavan BYRNES
Service No: 403903
Born: Wagga Wagga NSW, 26 July 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 31 March 1941
Unit: No. 82 Squadron
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 82 Squadron Kittyhawk aircraft A29-601), Ransiki, Dutch New Guinea, 12 December 1944, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Patrick James Byrnes and Ettie Vivian Byrnes
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 6, Lae Memorial PNG
Remembered: Panel 104, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Manly ANZAC War Memorial, Manly NSW
Remembered: Victory Memorial Gardens Cenotaph, Wagga Wagga NSW
On 12 December 1944, Pilot Officer Byrnes flying Kittyhawk A29-601 was one of four Kittyhawk aircraft conducting operational dive bombing training in the vicinity of Ransiki, Dutch New Guinea. The aircraft was seen to go into a dive and level out but the bomb release was not observed. The pilots of the other three aircraft – Warrant Officer Walter Sydney Delbridge (421893) (Discharged: 5 September 1945) in A29-690, Pilot Officer Richard Charles O’Neill (417404) (Discharged: 8 February 1946) in A29-676 and Flight Sergeant Maurice John Ryan (437447) (Discharged: 23 January 1946) in A29-646 – saw nothing of A29-601 at the completion of the exercise and returned to base.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A9845, 163; A9845, 163
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line
Bibliography:
Ilbery, P.L.T. (Peter Leslie Thomas) (422957) Hatching an Air Force: 2SFTS, 5SFTS, 1BFTS Uranquinty and Wagga Wagga, Banner Books Maryborough QLD 4650, 2002