LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer William Robert CUTHBERTSON
From Australia serving in the Royal Air Force
Service No: 114345 (RAF)
Born: Location, Date unavailable
Enlisted in the RAF: Appointed 29 May 1943
Unit: No. 101 Squadron (RAF), RAF Ludford Magna, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations: The Build-up Period (No. 101 Squadron Lancaster aircraft DV301), France, 1 July 1944, Aged 19 Years
Buried: Langon Communal Cemetery, Loire-et-Cher, France
CWGC Additional Information: No further information
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Lancaster DV301 took off from RAF Ludford Magna at 2219 hours on the night of 30 June 1944, detailed to carry out specialist ABC (Airborne Cigar – Radar jamming) duties in support of a mission to bomb railway facilities at Vierson. The aircraft was shot down and crashed at L’Autiere in the commune of Langon, 20 kms east of Vierson. All the crew members were killed
The crew members of DV301 were:
Pilot Officer James Nelson Brown (173626) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Albert Thomas Couch (R/208208) (RCAF) (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer William Robert Cuthbertson (144345) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Carl Victor Krieg (437425) (Wireless Operator Air) (Specialist Equipment Operator)
Sergeant Thomas Lyth (1491299) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant William Offord (1892332) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant John Pritchard (417887) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant David Urquhart (R/208306) (RCAF) (Mid Upper Gunner)
References:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/8/530 (Crew Casualty Message on Flight Sergeant Kreig’s Casualty File lists Flying Officer Cuthbertson’s mother as Mrs Isabel Ferguson Cuthbertson, 34 Outram Street, West Perth WA (Died: 24 January 1950))