LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Brian John O’DONNELL
Service No: 429730
Born: Perth WA, 24 November 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 21 October 1942
Unit: No. 10 Squadron (RAF), RAF Melbourne, Yorkshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 10 Squadron Halifax aircraft LK827), Germany, 6 December 1944, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Laurence and Katherine O’Donnell, of Mount Lawley, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: WA
Remembered: Panel 261, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Remembered: Honour Avenues, Kings Park WA
Halifax LK851 took off from RAF Melbourne at 1651 hours on 6 December 1944 to bomb Osnabruck, Germany. Nothing further was heard from the aircraft and the crew are listed as missing.
The crew members of LK827 were:
Flying Officer Jack Hindle (154673) (RAFVR)
Flight Sergeant Brian John O’Donnell (429730)
Flying Officer John Norman Lawrence Scott (163951) (RAFVR)
Sergeant John Wilson Mitchell Slaven (3041586) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Robert Mathias Swinbank (1484251) (RAFVR)
Flying Officer Eric Albert Welch (170628) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Ernest Wilcox (3040692) (RAFVR)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Chorley W R, Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War – Volume 5 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1944, Midland Counties Publications, 1997
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, 166/31/285