LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Martin Randolph HEHIR
Service No: 408579
Born: Lockhart NSW, 21 April 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 27 April 1941 (at Melbourne VIC)
Unit: No. 142 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Grimsby
Died: Air Operations: (No. 142 Squadron Wellington aircraft BK198), off the Dutch Coast, 8 November 1942, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Thomas William and Catherine Mary Hehir, of Rand, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Rand NSW
Remembered: Panel 111, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 123, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Rand War Memorial, Rand NSW
At 2245 hours on the night of 7 November 1942 Wellington BK198 took off from Grimsby together with 9 other aircraft from the Squadron detailed to carry out a mine laying operation off Texel Island, Holland. The route was Base –52.43N, 05.18E – 52.47N, 04.32E – Base. Nothing was heard from BK198 after take-off and it did not return to base. W R Chorley states that “it was believed that the Pilot may have lost control due to intense searchlight glare and the aircraft came down into the sea at 0038 hours on the 8 November1942 in the target area.” All the crew members were killed in the crash.
The crew members of BK198 were:
Sergeant Joseph Atkinson (810060) (RAF (Auxiliary Air Force)) (Navigator Bomb Aimer) Remains recovered
Sergeant Noel Briggs Collins (1453186) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer)
Flight Sergeant Martin Randolph Hehir (408579) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Richard Francis Hill (656834) (RAF) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Thomas Woodhouse (403846) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner) Remains recovered
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Chorley W R, Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 3 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1942, Midland Counties Publications UK, 1994
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/121/255
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line