LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Keith PANWICK
Service No: 433753
Born: Gunnedah NSW, 15 March 1925
Enlisted in the RAAF: 8 May 1943
Unit: No. 1656 Conversion Unit (RAF), RAF Station Lindholme
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1656 Conversion Unit Halifax aircraft JD417), North Wales, 3 September 1944, Aged 19 Years
Buried: Chester (Blacon) Cemetery, Cheshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Jesse James Panwick and Mabel May Panwick, of Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Muswellbrook NSW
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Muswellbrook War Memorial, Muswellbrook NSW
At 1130 hours on 3 September 1944, Halifax JD417 took off from Lindholme for a day navigation exercise. The aircraft entered cloud and crashed into high ground at about 1500 hours on Yr Eifl near Trevor on the north side of the Lleyn Peninsula, 12 miles south west of Caernarfon, North Wales. All the crew members were killed. Two fixes had been passed to the aircraft previously and these were acknowledged. A Bomb Aimer had not been carried on the flight.
The crew members of JD417 were:
Flying Officer Maxwell Cox (424379) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Francis Reginald Jones (1012895) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Keith Panwick (433753) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Lindsay George Walker (423363) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Roy Walmsley (433631) (Air Gunner)
Warrant Officer John Albert White (421114) (Wireless Operator Air)
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, 166/32/490
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line