LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Edwin Douglas MONCRIEFF
Service No: 410168
Born: Seddon VIC, 20 June 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 5 December 1941
Unit: No. 115 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Witchford
Died: Air Operations: (No. 115 Squadron Lancaster aircraft DS777), Germany, 21 January 1944, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Stephen and Anne Jane Moncrieff, of Balwyn, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Camberwell VIC
Remembered: Panel 261, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 127, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2019 hours on 20 January 1944 Lancaster DS777 took off from Witchford to attack Madgeburg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. German documents examined post war record that the aircraft was shot down in the vicinity of Sommersdorf, some 40 miles west of Madgeburg. As Madgeburg was located in the Soviet Occupied Zone of Germany it was not possible for investigating teams to visit the crash site. The body of one crew members was recovered, three crew members were taken prisoner, and the remaining three crew members have no known graves.
The crew members of DS777 were:
Flight Sergeant Robert Browning Becker (R/152224) (RCAF) (Navigator) PoW
Sergeant Kenneth William John Baxter (1388976) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air)
Flight Sergeant Andrew Graham Davison (423667) (Bomb Aimer) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 17 October 1945
Sergeant Charles Victor Luck (1818230) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) PoW
Sergeant Phillip Lynch (1373580) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Edwin Douglas Moncrieff (410168) (Pilot)
Sergeant Joseph William Shelton (1895713) (RAFVR) (Air 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, 166/28/224