LEST WE FORGET
Warrant Officer Roy Marmaduke EDMUNDS
Service No: 408644
Born: Nathalia VIC, 26 February 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 22 May 1941
Unit: No. 7 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Oakington
Died: Air Operations: (No. 7 Squadron Lancaster aircraft JB347), Germany, 18 October 1943, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Hanover War Cemetery, Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Edwin Charles and Elizabeth Mary Edmonds, of Coburg, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Nathalia VIC
Remembered: Panel 121, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1749 hours on the night of 18 October 1943 Lancaster JB347 took off from Oakington to bomb Hannover, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Post war enquiries by a Missing Research and Enquiry Unit established that the aircraft crashed at Rehburg Stadt about 22 miles north-west of Hanover. Four crew members had been killed and three were Prisoners of War.
The crew members of JB347 were:
Sergeant Frank Cobley (1198596) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flying Officer John Martin David (J/13085) (RCAF) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Warrant Officer Roy Marmaduke Edmunds (408644) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Basil Frederick Edwin Lyle (923839) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) PoW
Flight Sergeant John Gordon Kernaghan (413611) (Bomb Aimer) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 16 July 1946
Warrant Officer Alan Matthew Marshall (1339165) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant John Rutherford Penny (414625) (Navigator) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 27 October 1945
In a later statement Flight Sergeant Penny reported “Sergeant Edmunds was wounded and unconscious and without a harness on. The aircraft was in flames and as attempts to get him out failed, I believe he was killed in the crash.”
Flight Sergeant Kernaghan reported “I have no knowledge re the fate of Edmunds as I neither saw nor heard him after the order to abandon the aircraft was given.”
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, 163/105/145