LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Colin Alais FLETCHER
Service No: 402328
Born: Sydney NSW, 7 August 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 19 August 1940
Unit: No. 12 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Grimsby
Died: Air Operations: (No. 12 Squadron Wellington II aircraft W5570), North West Europe, 10 April 1942, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles Alais Fletcher and Heather Elsie Fletcher, of Randwick, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 111, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Honour Roll of Old Newingtonians, Stanmore NSW
Wellington W5570 took off from Grimsby at 2158 hours on 10 April 1942, to carry out a bombing attack on Essen, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Following post war enquiries and investigations, it was recorded in 1949 that the missing crew members have no known grave.
The crew members of W5570 were:
Pilot Officer Harold Leslie Cook (J/15258) (RCAF) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Colin Alais Fletcher (402328) (Observer)
Sergeant Rae Rees Frost (403047) (Second Pilot)
Flight Sergeant William Tripp McEwan (R/69829) (RCAF) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Edwin Victor Pratt (1160114) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Sergeant Findon Douglas Newton Row (1184110) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator 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, 163/112/115
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line