LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Thomas Eugene CRADDOCK
Service No: 411869
Born: Ashfield NSW, 13 September 1919
Enlisted in the RAAF: 21 July 1941
Unit: No. 35 Squadron (RAF), RAF Graveley, Cambridgeshire
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 35 Squadron Lancaster aircraft PB678), off the Kent coast, 23 December 1944, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Landsdown John and Naomi Craddock, of Ashfield, New South Wales, Australia; husband of Helen M. T. Craddock, of Buckie, Banffshire
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 258, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 120, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 23 December 1944, Lancaster PB678 took off from RAF Graveley at 1040 hours on a day mission to bomb Cologne, Germany. When outbound at 10,000 feet and passing over South Foreland on the Kent coast at 1133 hours, PB 678 collided with Lancaster PB 683 also of No. 35 Squadron. Both aircraft fell into the sea and all the crew members in both aircraft were killed.
The crew members of PB678 were:
Pilot Officer Richard Joseph Clarke (56445) (RAF) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Thomas Eugene Craddock (411869) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Pilot Officer Donald Russell Currie (J/93665) (RCAF) (Navigator)
Sergeant John Charles Mays (1867597) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Robert Keith Norsworthy (417875) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer James McGee (J/95373) (RCAF) (Rear Gunner)
Warrant Officer Joseph William Webb (422774) (Bomb Aimer)
The crew members of PB 683 were:
Flight Lieutenant Norman Brown (115788) (RAFVR)
Flight Lieutenant John Geoffrey Faulkner (84712) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Alexander Stewart Fleming (1595708) (RAFVR)
Flying Officer George Simpson Lawson (149628) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Albert Sutcliffe DFM (1092752) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Lawrence White (1595759) (RAFVR)
Flight Sergeant John Seymore Winter (1231043) (RAFVR)
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 5 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1944, Midland Counties Publishing, 1997
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A9300, CRADDOCK T E