LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Robert Harry OVERMYER
Service No: 32700
Born: Junee NSW, 11 September 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 23 July 1940
Unit: No. 2 Operational Training Unit
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 2 Operational Training Unit Kittyhawk aircraft A29-173), near Mildura, 13 April 1943, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Mildura Public Cemetery, Victoria
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Robert Thomas Overmyer and Marguerite Overmyer, of Punchbowl, New South Wales
Roll of Honour: Punchbowl NSW
Remembered: Panel 112, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Railway Remembrance Wall, Central Station, Honour Roll – World War 2, Haymarket NSW
On 13 April 1943, Kittyhawks A29-173 flown by Sergeant Overmyer and A29-181 flown by Sergeant Robert Ronald Munro (416360) (Killed in an Aircraft Accident: 27 April 1943) were flying in cloud formation. When executing changes from vee to echelon A29-173 came up underneath A29-181 and collided with it. A29-173 appeared to stall and then dived to the ground, crashing approximately half a mile from the Mildura aerodrome. The aircraft burst into flames on impact and Sergeant Overmyer was killed. Sergeant Munro recovered A29-181 and was uninjured. Both were pilots under conversion.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/31/39; A9845, 8; A9845, 25
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line