LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Owen Ernest Currell HOFFMAN
Service No: 409920
Born: South Melbourne VIC, 27 May 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 7 November 1941
Unit: No. 172 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Chivenor
Died: Air Operations: (No. 172 Squadron Wellington aircraft HF141), Bay of Biscay area, 6 December 1943, Aged 28 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William John Richard and Alma Violet Hoffmann; husband of Constance Hoffmann, of Moonee Ponds, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Melbourne VIC
Remembered: Panel 193, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 124, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1600 hours on the 5 December 1943 Wellington HF141 took off from Chivenor to carry out mine laying operations in the Bay of Biscay area. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Following post war enquiries and investigations, it was recorded in 1949 that the missing crew members had no known grave.
The crew members of HF141 were:
Flight Sergeant Alwyn Walter Beves Barrett (421233) (Navigator)
Sergeant John Henry Colley (1426533) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Sergeant James Bracewell Croft (1488396) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Owen Ernest Currell Hoffman (409920) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Warrant Officer Albert Colwyne Kidson (408684) (Pilot)
Sergeant Reginald James Veitch (1316602) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
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, 166/18/234