LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Lee Gordon GOSPER DFC
Service No: 402985
Born: Sydney NSW, 9 October 1913
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 November 1940
Unit: No. 7 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Oakington
Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), 24 April 1945 (In recognition of service to No. 7 Squadron RAF)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 7 Squadron Stirling I aircraft R9270), France, 8 March 1943, Aged 29 Years
Buried: Les Souhesmes Communal Cemetery, Meuse, France
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Cecil George and Hildred Blanche Gosper, of Lower Portland, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Windsor NSW
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Wilberforce District Memorial and Park, Wilberforce NSW
DFC Citation: Pilot Officer Gosper has displayed exemplary proficiency as a wireless operator in heavy aircraft, having completed numerous operational sorties, many of them of a difficult and arduous nature. Throughout all these operations, he has been a most valuable member of aircrew, always displaying a high sense of duty and commendable enthusiasm. (Awarded 24 April 1945)
At 1908 hours on 8 March 1943, Stirling R9270 took off from Oakington to attack Nuremburg, Germany. The aircraft crashed at Les Souhes (Meuse), 16 km south west of Verdun, France and all the crew members were killed.
Sergeant Eric Thomas Beney (1277051) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Frank William Richard Cole DFM (616283) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Lee Gordon Gosper DFC (402985) (Air Bomber) (Qualified Pathfinder)
Pilot Officer Henry Harwood DFM (142910) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant William Peel Hudson DFM (1378108) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant Crofton Lustleigh Selman DFC (109922) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flight Lieutenant John Patrick Trench DSO (68742) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Chorley W R, Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 4 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1943, Midland Counties Publications UK, 1996
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/16/37
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line