LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Francis Rodney CUMMINS
Service No: 403848
Born: Rose bay NSW, 20 May 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 4 March 1941
Unit: No. 12 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Binbrook, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 12 Squadron Wellington aircraft X3988), Germany, 28 August 1942, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Francis Charles and Margaret Cummins, of Rose Bay, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Rose Bay NSW
Remembered: Panel 121, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Wellington X3988 took off from RAF Binbrook at 2018 hours on the night of 27/28 August 1942 to bomb Kassel, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. Post war it was established that the aircraft crashed in the vicinity of Gladbeck on the north west fringes of the Ruhr and all the crew members had been killed.
The crew members of X3988 were:
Sergeant Robert Hugh Ashwell (1214846) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Francis Rodney Cummins (403848) (Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant James Edward Dalton (402320) (Rear Gunner)
Pilot Officer Douglas Henry MacNaughton (117953) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Alfred Norton (1311697) (RAFVR) (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 A705 163/99/110