LEST WE FORGET

Flight Sergeant Robert GOULD

Service No: 427116
Born: Geraldton WA, 10 October 1911
Enlisted in the RAAF: 24 May 1942
Unit: No. 626 Squadron (RAF), RAF Wickenby, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 626 Squadron Lancaster aircraft LM380), Germany, 27 January 1944, Aged 32 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfal, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William Robert and Grace Hilda Gould; husband of Ivy Francis Gould, of Geraldton, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Geraldton WA
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA

On the night of 27 January 1944, Lancaster LM380 took off from RAF Wickenby at 1728 hours, detailed to bomb Berlin. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it failed to return to base. Homebound, the aircraft was shot down by a night fighter, and crashed at Katzenelnbogen, 8 kms south west of Galnstatten, Germany. Six of the crew were killed and one became a Prisoner of War.

The crew members of LM380 were:

Flight Lieutenant William Noel Belford (413945) (Pilot)
Sergeant Harry Hill (1810334) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Robert Gould (427116) (Rear Gunner)
Flight Sergeant A J P Lee (1320246) (RAFVR) (Navigator) PoW
Sergeant John Cottis Lee (1528812) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Hugh Harrison Mewburn (1001891) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Thomas Stanley Trinder (1384704) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)

On 6 January 1944 Flight Lieutenant Belford and all these crew members had ditched Lancaster MH 577 160 kms off the Yorkshire coast after the aircraft had been airborne over 10 hours and had run out of fuel. All were rescued without injury.

References:

Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Chorley, W .R. Royal Ait Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War – Volume 5 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1944, Midland Counties Publications, 1997
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/16/253

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