LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Raymond Thomas MARSTELLA
Service No: 405596
Born: Stanthorpe QLD, 20 June 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 26 April 1941
Unit: No. 4 (Coastal) Operational Training School (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 4 (Coastal) Operational Training School Sunderland aircraft W6009), Scotland, 14 January 1945, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Harrogate (Stonefall), Cemetery, Yorkshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Frederick Charles and Sarah Jane Marstella; husband of Ellen Euripides Marstella, of Clayfield, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Brisbane QLD
Remembered: Panel 127, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On the 14th January 1945, Sunderland W6009 took off from RAF Station Alness, Ross-Shire Scotland, on a non-operational armament training exercise. The aircraft crashed off shore near Ferrytown, Doronach Firth, Scotland at 1340 hours..
The crew members of W6009 were:
Pilot Officer Ernest Neil Bugg (436397) Seriously injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 13 December 1945
Flying Officer Alan Woodhouse Crompton (429929) (Pilot) Seriously injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 12 December 1945
Flight Sergeant Edwin Evers (443289) (Air Gunner) Missing
Sergeant William James Wesley Freudenstein (33805) Seriously injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 23 July 1945
Flight Sergeant John Jefferson Griffiths (423487) (Wireless Operator Air) Missing
Sergeant Charles Walter Laing (14626) (Flight Engineer) Killed
Flying Officer Raymond Thomas Marstella (405596) (Second Pilot) Killed
Flight Sergeant Guy Neville McLeod (426656) Seriously injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 10 December 1945
Flying Officer Francis Laurence Pepper (417881) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner) Missing
Flight Sergeant Murray Clive Pryor (437444) Seriously Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 3 December 1945
Sergeant Robert Roger Waddell (441309) Seriously injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 8 October 1945
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, 166/27/735