LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Alexander Gordon MacDONALD
Service No: 400476
Born: Kew VIC, 11 September 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 14 September 1940
Unit: No. 50 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Swinderby
Died: Air Operations: (No. 50 Squadron Lancaster aircraft R5639), North West Europe, 17 August 1942, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Donald Alexander Somertid Macdonald and Florence Emily Macdonald, of Kew, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Kew VIC
Remembered: Panel 110, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 126, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2135 hours on 17 August 1942 Lancaster R5639 took off from Swinderby to attack Osnabruck, Germany. Nothing further was heard from the aircraft after take-off, and it did not return to base. Following extensive searches and enquiries by the Missing Research and Enquiry service which failed to find any trace of the missing aircraft or crew, in 1949 it was recorded that the missing crew members had no known graves.
The crew members of R5639 were:
Flying Officer John Shirley Bunbury (101535) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Maurice Patrick Gallagher (574930) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Flying Officer Alexander Gordon MacDonald (400476) (Navigator)
Sergeant Ashleigh Thomas Mears (405094) (Wireless Operator/Air)
Sergeant Stewart Robertson Mitchell (1058531) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Glyndwr Phillips (630457) (RAF) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Peter Simpson (965570) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper 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, 163/46/63