LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Peter Colin EDWARDS
Service No: 38423
Born: Perth WA, 8 November 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 15 April 1941
Unit: No. 10 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Melbourne, Yorkshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 10 Squadron Halifax aircraft NR246), English Channel, 26 December 1944, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Norman Job and Hilda Edith Mary Edwards, of Wyalkatchem, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Minnivale WA
Remembered: Panel 258, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 99, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Remembered: Rathmines Memorial Bowling Club, Rathmines NSW
Pilot Officer Edwards’ name appears to have been incorrectly added to the Rathmines Memorial that remembers RAAF members lost on Maritime Units as he served with No. 10 Squadron RAF and not with No. 10 Squadron RAAF.
On 26 December 1944, Halifax NR 246 took off from RAF Melbourne, Yorkshire, at 1250 hours, detailed to attack enemy troop positions at St Vith, Belgium. The aircraft was presumed to be over the target at 1535 hours and at 1635 hours a fix was obtained in position 50.57N 15.3E. At 1636 a call sign stating “tail damage” was received from approximately over Calais. It was believed the aircraft had plunged into the sea off the Kent resort of Margate at around 1640 hours, having been heard on Wireless/Telephone at 1633 hours and again three minutes later. All seven crew members were missing.
The crew members of NR246 were:
Pilot Officer Dennis Edwalds Addyman (184147) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Peter Colin Edwards (38423) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Jack Gerald Gower (186476) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Pilot Officer William Ross Douglas MacLeod (183628) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Philip John Mansell (1867033) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Thomas Murphy (2210907) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Bernard Yates (182761) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/11/218
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line