LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Charles Douglas HAMILTON
Service No: 409695
Born: Fairfield VIC, 19 January 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 10 October 1941
Unit: No. 233 Squadron (RAF), RAF Blakehill Farm, Gloucestershire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 233 Squadron Dakota aircraft KG566), Netherlands, 21 September 1944, Aged 28 Years
Buried: Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles Douglas and Elsie Mary Hamilton; husband of Daphne Egerton Hamilton, of Fairfield, Victoria, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Melbourne VIC
Remembered: Panel 123, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Dakota KG566 of 233 Squadron took off from RAF Station Blakehill Farm at 1320 hours on 21 September 1944, to carry out a mission dropping panniers in a Market resupply operation on a DE in the Arnhem area. This aircraft was one of twenty which were engaged on the operation and the Captains of other aircraft on the mission reported intense enemy opposition in the form of anti-aircraft fire and fighter aircraft were encountered around the target area. No reports were received from KG 566 which did not return from the mission. It was assumed that the aircraft was shot down in or around the target area. In a later report from Rear Headquarters No 83 Group RAF, it was advised that at approximately 1620 hours on 21 September 1944, 2 Dakotas were shot down by an unidentified fighter in the Eindhoven area, Holland. These aircraft crashed and immediately burst into flames. It was not possible for the RAF Regiment Squadron located near the scene of the crash to quell the flames, but they were able to extricate seven bodies from the wreckage.
Those on board KG566 were:
Warrant Officer Louis James Firth (414923) (Wireless Operator)
Flying Officer Charles Douglas Hamilton (409695) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Frederick Benbow Knight (409798) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant William Burnaby Wheeler (436353) (Second Pilot)
Driver Robert Winter Crooks (T/857964) (No. 800 Air Despatch Company, Royal Army Service Corps, British Army)
Corporal Joseph Dellanzo (T/10684750) (No. 800 Air Despatch Company, Royal Army Service Corps, British Army)
Lance Corporal Robert Sharpe (T/4806032) (No. 800 Air Despatch Company, Royal Army Service Corps, British Army)
Driver George Van Ingen (T/14508172) (No. 800 Air Despatch Company, Royal Army Service Corps, British Army)
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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/17/757