LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant David Alistair PATERSON
Service No: 427726
Born: Edinburgh Scotland, 5 February 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 13 September 1922 (at Perth WA)
Unit: No. 467 Squadron, RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 467 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ME851), France, 16 July 1944, Aged 21 years
Buried: Lignieres-de-Touraine Communal Cemetery, Indre-et-Loire, France
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Thomas and Isabella Paterson, of Victoria Park, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Perth WA
Remembered: Panel 111, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Australians in No. 5 Group were out again the following night (16-17 July) when railway yards and the junction of the Paris-Le Creusot main lines were severely damaged at Nevers. These excellent results were not immediately seen by the eight crews of No. 463 and the nine of No. 467 which took part, because, as an experiment in avoiding the extinguishing of ground markers, delayed-action bombs were employed. These bombs were fitted with tail tracers to allow bomb aimers to follow the trajectory and this did give some confidence that the bomb pattern had in fact been concentrated.
Extract from Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Over Europe 1944-1945, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1963 – Page 236
Lancaster ME851 took off from RAF Waddington at 2219 hours on the night of 15/16th July 1944 to bomb marshalling yards at Nevers, France. Bomb load 10 x 1000 lb (pound) (450 kg) and 3 x 500 lb (225 kg) bombs. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Nine aircraft from the Squadron took part in the raid and one of these ME 851 failed to return. Post war it was established that the aircraft crashed at Lignieres-de-Touraine, a small village south of the Loire and some 22 kms west south west of Tours and 3kms south of the village of Langeais, France.
The crew members of ME851 were:
Flying Officer James Alwyn Ewen (423689) (Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Edmund William Charles Goode (1704545) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Arthur Hedley Jenkins (424764) (Air Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant William Joseph Bernard Murphy (J28934) (RCAF) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant David Alistair Paterson (427726) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant William Paul (423870) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Wilson Harry Emanuel Wright (422342) (Navigator)
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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/32/442