LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Thomas Roberts MILLAR
Service No: 422612
Born: Narromine NSW, 7 September 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 22 May 1942
Unit: No. 31 Squadron (SAAF)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 31 Squadron Liberator aircraft KH158), Italy, 12 October 1944, Aged 28 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Thomas Roberts Millar and Edith Amy Millar; husband of Elizabeth Grace Millar, of Mosman, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 16, Column 1, Malta Memorial, Malta
Remembered: Panel 134, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On the night of 12 October 1944, Liberator KH158 was one of 16 Squadron aircraft detailed to drop supplies to Italian partisans operating in the foothills of the Alps at the west end of the Po Valley. KH158 took off at 1613 hours from Celone landing ground, to drop supplies 12 miles east north east of Genoa. The night was dark with strata cumulous clouds building up northwards from the Appenines, with tops of 8-10,000 feet. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. In 1949 it was recorded that the crew were missing with no known grave. Their names are commemorated on the Malta Memorial.
The crew members of KH158 were:
Lieutenant N W Armstrong (103840V) (SAAF) (Air Gunner)
Warrant Officer I L B Bloch (208109V) (SAAF) (Air Gunner)
Lieutenant G A Collard (329145V) (SAAF) (Observer)
Sergeant Reginald Charles Fitzgerald (2235237) (RAFVR) (SAG)
Flying Officer George Edward Hudspith (54114) (RAF) (Second Pilot)
Second Lieutenant P J Lordan (36065V) (SAAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Thomas Roberts Millar (422612) (Bomb Aimer)
Major SS Urry (SAAF) (102736V) (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, 166/27/603