LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Ronald Henry ETHERTON
Service No: 423088
Born: Sydney NSW, 2 November 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 June 1942
Unit: No. 76 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Holme-on-Spalding Moor
Died: Air Operations: (No. 76 Squadron Halifax aircraft LL578), Germany, 13 August 1944, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Choloy War Cemetery, Meurth-et-Moselle, France
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Henry and Florance Wilson Etherton, of Kogarah, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 121, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2129 hours on the night of 12 August 1944 Halifax LL578 took off from Holme-on-Spalding Moor detailed to bomb Russelsheim, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. LL578 crashed 2 kms north east of Hamm, Germany, and all the crew members were killed.
The crew members of LL578 were:
Flight Sergeant Irvin Gordon Thomas Brownlee (R/180799) (RCAF) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Ronald Henry Etherton (423088) (Navigator)
Flying Officer Robert Verdun Ings (174019) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Robert McGuire McLaren (1893585) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Keith Paul Samson (425760) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant William Edwin Twigg (1473131) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Frederick Charles Williams (1896337) (RAFVR) (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, 166/12/97
Bibliography:
Chorley W R, To See the Dawn Breaking: 76 Squadron Operations, W R Chorley Devon UK, 1981