LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Alastair Mackay GREENFIELD
Service No: 401064
Born: Ballarat VIC, 5 March 1910
Enlisted in the RAAF: 8 December 1940
Unit: No 158 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station East Moor
Died: Air Operations: (No. 158 Squadron Halifax aircraft W1040), Netherlands, 22 July 1942, Aged 32 Years
Buried: Amersfoort (Oud Leuden) General Cemetery, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Angus Mackay Greenfield and Florence Maud Greenfield, of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Ballarat VIC
Remembered: Panel 123, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 0004 hours on the morning of 22 July 1942 Halifax W1040 took off from East Moor detailed to bomb Duisberg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft was shot down by a night fighter and crashed at 0150 hours between Schoonrewoerd and Zijderveld (Utrecht), Netherlands. Three crew members were killed and the others became Prisoners of War.
The crew members of W1040 were:
Pilot Officer George Alfred Archer (402215) (Observer) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 5 June 1946
Sergeant Albert Joseph Godwin (568483) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) PoW
Sergeant Alastair Mackay Greenfield (401064) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Joseph Edwin Hall (1010561) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner) PoW
Pilot Officer Frank Thomas Hardy (124624) (RAFVR) (Pilot) PoW
Sergeant John Morris Urwin (1153694) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber) PoW
Sergeant John Wilson (1379030) (RAFVR) (Tail Gunner)
Pilot Officer Arthur Thomas Yeo (47550) (RAF) (Second Pilot)
In a PoW report Pilot Officer Archer stated “The aircraft was shot down by an ME110. No orders given by the Captain to abandon aircraft. The tail gunner was killed in the first attack. In the second attack the Mid Gunner Greenfield might have been hit or killed. I baled out at approximately 800 feet. The aircraft was diving rapidly but under control. It was on fire also the port and starboard engines were on fire. The Pilot escaped with head and back injuries when he crash landed the plane, but it gave the rest of the crew the opportunity to bale out. After landing discovered by two Dutch men and handed over to the police.”
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, 163/118/400