LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Hugh PITMAN
Service No: 415046
Born: Narrogin WA, 5 September 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 23 June 1941
Unit: No. 8 Squadron, Goodenough Island
Died: Air Operations (No. 8 Squadron Beaufort aircraft A9-233), Buka, 25 October 1943, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Fred Hugh and Mary Lucy Pitman, of Corrigin, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Corrigin WA
Remembered: Panel 9, Port Moresby Memorial, PNG
Remembered: Panel 99, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Remembered: Honour Avenues, Kings Park WA
On 25 October, a heavy raid was made on Buka airstrip and dump area. Flight Sergeant “Slim” Somerville, flying A9-233, was hit and forced to ditch. Flight Sergeant “Snow” Lee and Somerville got out, but the two other members of his crew, Flying Officer Plummer-Davies and Flight Sergeant Pitman, were lost. Natives came out in canoes and rescued Somerville and Lee, who kept afloat for more than five hours.
Extract from Graham, B. (Burton) and Frank Smyth, A Nation Grew Wings: The Story of the RAAF Beaufort Squadrons in New Guinea, Winterset House Publishers Melbourne VIC, 1946 – Page 63
The crew members of A9-233 were:
Flight Sergeant Robert Stokes Lee (412981) (Wireless Air Gunner) Rescued, Discharged from the RAAF: 9 October 1945
Flight Sergeant Hugh Pitman (415046) (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer David Plummer- Davies (275942) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Keith Fraser Somerville (412204) (Pilot) Rescued, Discharged from the RAAF: 8 March 1946
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A9845, 248
Bibliography:
Wilson, S. (Stewart) Beaufort, Beaufighter and Mosquito in Australian Service, Aerospace Publications Weston Creek ACT 2611, 1990