LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Charles William HOWARD
Service No: 420470
Born: Willoughby NSW, 1 October 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 8 November 1941
Unit: No. 3 Bombing and Gunnery School (RCAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 3 Bombing and Gunnery School Bolingbroke aircraft 10055), Manitoba, 19 August 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Winnipeg (Elmwood) Cemetery, Manitoba
CWGC Additional Information: William Lorne Howard and Florence Ruby Howard; husband of Edith Shears Howard, of Winnipeg
Roll of Honour: Northbridge NSW
Remembered: Panel 133, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1520 hours on 19 August 1944, Bolingbroke 10055 crashed and exploded in a stubble field, half a mile south east of the main aerodrome near MacDonald while engaged in a camera gun exercise. Flying Officer Howard and four members of the RCAF were killed.
The crew members of Bolingbroke 10055 were:
Pilot Officer Charles William Howard (420470) (Pilot)
Aircraftman Class I Duane Francis Lockwood (R/285048) (RCAF) (Equipment Assistant, Supernumerary)
Leading Aircraftman Francis David Seagram (R/276956) (RCAF) (Trainee Air Gunner)
Leading Aircraftman Ernest Joseph Shelling (R/258345) (RCAF) (Trainee Air Gunner)
Leading Aircraftman Roy Arnold Sims (K/258468) (RCAF) (Trainee 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, 166/18/441