LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Kenneth McKenzie LESLIE
Service No: 400240
Born: Melbourne VIC, 15 May 1919
Enlisted in the RAAF: 21 July 1944
Unit: No. 58 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 58 Squadron Whitley aircraft Z9517), Bay of Biscay, 17 August 1942, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Ewen Cameron Leslie and Marjorie Isobel Leslie, of East Malvern, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Malvern VIC
Remembered: Panel 111, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 125, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1440 hours on 17 August 1942 Whitley Z9517 took off on an anti-submarine patrol in the Bay of Biscay. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Following post war enquiries and investigations it was established that Sergeant Phillipson’s body was recovered from the Bay of Biscay off Cape Ortegal, Corunna, Spain, and interred in the Cedeira Public Cemetery. No trace of the other missing crew members was found and it was recorded that they had lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of Z9517 were:
Pilot Officer Kenneth William Clugston (46639) (RAF) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Kenneth McKenzie Leslie (400240) (Observer)
Sergeant Albert Marshall (1166484) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Joseph Roger Rolland Metivier (R/82378) (RCAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Edward Robert Phillipson (1056596) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Peter John Christie Savage (J/10288) (RCAF) (Second Pilot)
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, 163/137/197