LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Arthur Harold FOXLEY
Service No: 413848
Born: Canterbury NSW, 7 April 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 13 September 1941
Unit: No. 228 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Pembroke Dock
Died: Air Operations: (No. 228 Squadron Sunderland aircraft T228), Bay of Biscay area, 24 December 1943, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Joseph Arthur and Ruby Trottman Foxley; husband of Dorothy Jean Foxley, of Annandale, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Ashbury NSW
Remembered: Panel 192, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 0715 hours on 24 December 1943 Sunderland T228 took off from Pembroke Dock to carry out an anti-submarine patrol. At 1225 hours a distress signal was received from the aircraft. At this time T228 was over a force of enemy destroyers and in company of another Sunderland. At 1310 hours a message was received from the other Sunderland aircraft which stated that wreckage of a Sunderland aircraft had been sighted and one survivor seen on the wing float of the aircraft. A dinghy was dropped but the survivor disappeared a few minutes later. Although the crew of the accompanying aircraft did not actually see T228 shot down, it was believed that T228 was shot down by an enemy surface vessel. In 1949 it was recorded that all on board the aircraft had lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of T228 were:
Sergeant Robert Meredith Bond (1389240) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Richard Kenneth Chapman (658037) (RAF) (Third Pilot)
Flight Lieutenant Walter Henry Ewen Fitzearle (43158) (RAF) (Pilot)
Sergeant Arthur Harold Foxley (413848) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Sergeant Peter Edwin Gander (648878) (RAF) (Fitter/Gunner)
Flight Sergeant George Wallace Gordon (413852) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Robert John Hodges (136824) (RAFVR) (Navigator/ Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Eric John Lock (1809052) (RAFVR) (Fitter/Air Gunner)
Warrant Officer John Brown Mullin (1000340) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Leslie Robinson (622736) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Ernest Weiland (413151) (Navigator/Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant George Ernest Wilks (946471) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
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, 166/14/147