LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Eric Vincent Kieran HIGGINS
Service No: 400277
Born: Windsor VIC, 2 March 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 18 August 1940
Unit: No. 75 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Feltwell
Died: Air Operations: (No. 75 Squadron Wellington aircraft R3171), North Sea, 16 July 1941, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Joseph and Mary Higgins; husband of Loreen Higgins, of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 62, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 123, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 15 July 1941 Wellington R3171 took off from Feltwell to attack Duisburg, Germany. At 0300 hours its port engine was set on fire as a result of enemy action, and the aircraft attempting to return to base got within 30 miles of the English coast, and force landed in the North Sea off the Dutch coast. The bodies of two of the crew members were alter washed ashore in the Netherlands and the remaining four missing crew members are recorded as having lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of R3171 were:
Sergeant Sydney Allan Dyer (40101) (RNZAF)
Sergeant Robert Ewen Ernest Fotheringham (391833) (RNZAF)
Sergeant Phillip Edgar Hare (401227) (RNZAF)
Sergeant Eric Vincent Kieran Higgins (400277) (Pilot)
Sergeant Douglas Malcolm MacKinnon (40923) (RNZAF)
Sergeant Joseph Harold Campbell Roberts (R/54910) (RCAF)
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, 163/122/62