LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Ronald Robert McMILLAN
Service No: 425409
Born: Winton QLD, 19 February 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 2 February 1942
Unit: No. 7 Squadron (RAF), RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 7 Squadron Lancaster aircraft JB543), Germany, 16 December 1943, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Robert and Mary Florence McMillan, of Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Charters Towers QLD
Remembered: Panel 126, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Lancaster JB543 took off from RAF Oakington at 1621 hours on the night of 16/17th December 1943 to bomb Berlin. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it failed to return to base. JB 543 was one of four aircraft from the Squadron that failed to return from the mission. It was established post war that the aircraft was shot down by a night fighter and crashed at Wilsun, a small German town 10 kms north west of Neuenhaus and not far from the Dutch border.
The crew members of JB543 were:
Flight Sergeant Ronald Robert McMillan (425409) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flight Sergeant A Smillie (1349728) (RAFVR) (Navigator) PoW
Pilot Officer Geoffrey Tyler (415286) (Pilot)
Sergeant Alfred Arthur Tucker (1385164) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Clifford Reginald Underhill (1581877) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant William Primrose Wilson (1452338) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant D Woolford (1321169) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer) PoW
In a later report Sergeant Woolford stated “I believe Flight Sergeant McMillan had been killed as I had identified him in a family photo in which he was wearing the white flash of a cadet.”
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 A9301, 425409