LEST WE FORGET

Warrant Officer Murray Bernard CROCKETT

Service No: 410876
Born: Daylesford VIC, 3 March 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 27 March 1942
Unit: No. 355 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 355 Squadron Liberator aircraft EV940, Thailand, 6 October 1944, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Thailand
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John Paul and Mabel Crockett, of Daylesford, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Daylesford VIC
Remembered: Panel 120, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT

On 6 October 1944, Liberator EV940 crashed at 0905Z hours approximately 4 miles north of Uttaradit, Thailand, during a low bombing attack on two locomotives in the station at Uttaradit on the Bankok-Lampang railway line. All on board EV940 were killed. The formation attacked in line astern, diving down from 1,500 feet to 300 feet. One of the aircraft in the formation reported seeing tracers from a Machine Gun Nest going into No 2 aircraft EV940, and that aircraft steepened its climbing turn to 90 degrees and slipped inwards out of control, crashing in position 17.42N 100.08E. The Squadron Leader Commanding Officer of No. 355 Squadron reported: “Harrison’s aircraft was in my own formation when we made the low level attack on the railway station in Thailand and he went in to attack just before I made my second run. After bombing, I did not see that aircraft but the ground defences must have hit the machine because they crashed just after passing over the target. The aircraft blew up on impact and must have killed all on board instantly.”

The crew members of EV940 were:

Sergeant Thomas Aisbitt (3040082) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Warrant Officer Murray Bernard Crockett (410876) (Second Pilot)
Warrant Officer Alfred Milne Hunter Davidson (421713) (First Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Harold Norman Harrison (1575095) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Harry Law (1579345) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Hugh Cecil Martin (1796212) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Charles Nunn (1320361) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Roy Page (996520) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Warrant Officer John Knox Stewart Radnidge (421757) (Second Wireless Air Gunner)

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 A9301, 410876

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