LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Bernard Wilson KEARNEY
Service No: 405387
Born: Wodonga VIC, 28 April 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 6 September 1940 / 31 March 1941
Unit: No. 168 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: Fighter Command in 1943 (No. 168 Squadron Mustang aircraft AG578), France, 23 January 1943, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Michael Peter and Victoria Anne Kearney, of Malvern, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Malvern VIC
Remembered: Panel 125, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Flying Officer Kearney enlisted in the Reserve on 6 September 1940 at Brisbane and was allocated the Service Number 405387 though he subsequently enlisted in Melbourne. The service number 405387 indicates a Queensland enlistment.
On file A705, 166/23/7 there is a letter from Monsieur R Grandin of Villa ‘La Fussains’, St Etienne-au-Mont, Pas De Calais, France in which he wrote “About 1.30pm on 23 January 1943 two English aircraft flying at low altitude crashed in the Nampont-St Firmin district in Montreuil (Pas De Calais). One pilot was mortally wounded and he told my son to take his personal belongings which he did, including a watch case that had the name of Kearney on it.” The other pilot survived the crash but Flying Officer Kearney died.
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, 166/23/7