LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Philip Hedley Malcolm LEVEY
Service No: 429588
Born: Sydney NSW, 3 January 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 9 October 1942 (at Brisbane QLD)
Unit: No. 462 Squadron, RAF Station Driffield, Yorkshire
Died: Air Operations: Resumption of the Strategic Bombing (No. 462 Squadron Halifax aircraft MZ400), Germany, 9 October 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Francis Barnet Philip and Ruth Levey, of Eagle Junction, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Brisbane QLD
Remembered: Panel 109, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Date: 9-10 October 1944
Target: Bochum
Total Force: Dispatched – 435, Attacking – 404
RAAF Force: No. 460 Dispatched – 9, Attacking – 7; No. 466 Dispatched – 12, Attacking – 12
Tons of Bombs Dropped: 1,453
Total Aircraft Lost: 6
RAAF Aircraft Lost: No. 462 – 2
Extract from Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Over Europe 1944-1945, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1963 – Page 302
Halifax MZ400 took off from RAF Driffield at 1730 hours on the night of 9/10th October 1944 to bomb Bochum, Germany. Following post war enquiries by the Missing Research and Enquiry Service and examination of German documents it was established that MZ400 was hit by ack-ack fire and disintegrated in the air. Various portion of the aircraft crashed in the vicinity of Bredenschild, a village about 8 miles south west of Bochum. All the crew members were killed
The crew members of MZ400 were:
Flying Officer Gerald Coleman (178780) (RAF) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Phillip Hedley Malcolm Levey (429588) (Navigator)
Sergeant Archibald James Mouat (1378208) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Denis Roy Muxlow (1590607) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Ronald Charles Stopp (1892044) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant John Newton Tresidder (424477) (Wireless Operator Air)
Sergeant Alan James Ward (1581798) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer)
The No. 462 Squadron Operations Record Book records that “it was thought that both aircraft ‘J’ and ‘D’ (Halifax LL604 (Flying Officer William Stowell Black (411864) (Pilot) PoW, Discharged: 30 October 1945)) were shot down by enemy night fighters on the leg into the target as several were seen in this area.”
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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/24/555