LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant William Bruce HUXLEY
Service No: 424123
Born: Manly NSW, 21 August 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 15 August 1942
Unit: No. 13 Operational Training Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 13 Operational Training Unit Boston aircraft BZ228), Northamptonshire, 30 March 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Oxford (Botley) Cemetery, Oxfordshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of James Claude and Christabel Margaret Huxley, of Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Parramatta NSW
Remembered: Panel 124, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Railway Remembrance Wall, Central Station, Eveleigh Loco – Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 Korea, Haymarket NSW
At 2235 hours on the night of 30 March 1944 Boston BZ228 took off from RAF Finmore on a night cross-country exercise. Instructions were passed to the aircraft until 2325 hours then nothing further was heard. At 2330 hours the aircraft was heard flying very low over a house at Hardingstone and it crashed at Rothersthorpe. It exploded on impact and all the crew members were killed.
The crew members of BZ228 were:
Sergeant Andrew Foote (1565701) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Alexander Scott Gillies (R/200515) (RCAF) (Bottom Gunner)
Flight Sergeant William Bruce Huxley (424123) (Top Gunner)
Flying Officer John Allan Robertson (153584) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
A subsequent Court of Inquiry report stated: “there is no direct evidence as to the cause of the accident. It is possible that the moon being bright and visibility good, that the Pilot was flying by visual means and ran into industrial haze over Northampton. Though he was in cloud he decided to get below it and by the time he had fixed his attention on his instruments, he had lost control of his aircraft which hit the ground at a high forward speed with the port wing very low.”
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, 166/18/318
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line