LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Howard GAVIN
Service No: 423095
Born: Bathurst NSW, 8 October 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 June 1942
Unit: No. 106 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Metheringham
Died: Air Operations: (No. 106 Squadron Lancaster aircraft LM570), Netherlands, 22 June 1944, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Uden War Cemetery, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Mervyn Roy and Ivy Geraldine Brickwood Gavin, of Kelso, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Bathurst NSW
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, Bathurst NSW
At 2315 hours on the night of 21 June 1944 Lancaster LM570 took off from Metheringham detailed to bomb a synthetic oil plant (Buer) at Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. When outbound the aircraft was shot down by a night fighter and crashed at Rossum (Gelderland) a village on the bank of the Waal and west of Maas, 12 kms south west of Tiel. All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of LM570 were:
Flying Officer Kenneth George Bellingham (126639) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant James William Blanchard (1677489) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Howard Gavin (423095) (Navigator)
Sergeant Arthur Goodacre (1458094) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Squadron Leader Arthur James Loughborough (39743) (RAF) (Pilot)
Sergeant Sidney Joseph Malaband (1819794) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Clarence Elgy Scott (R/210634) (RCAF) (Rear Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Leo Toomey (422764) (Air Bomber)
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, 166/15/272
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line