LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Dennis Hilton POTTER
Service No: 427021
Born: Bruce Rock WA, 12 November 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 26 April 1942
Unit: No. 624 Squadron (RAF), Brindisi, Italy
Died: Air Operations (No. 624 Squadron Halifax aircraft BB444), Albania, 1 February 1944, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Tirana Park Memorial Cemetery, Albania
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Thomas Harry and Ellen Potter, of Muntadgin, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Muntadgin WA
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
On the 1 February 1944, Halifax BB444 took off at Brindisi at 1705 hours, detailed to carry out a special operation in Albania. Nothing was hard from the aircraft after takeoff and it failed to return to base. Due to engine failure, the aircraft crashed in a valley near the pinpoints on its third circuit of the dropping zone. Six of the crew members were killed, and one was slightly injured.
The crew members of BB444 were:
Sergeant S D Baker (RAF) (Air Gunner) Slightly Injured
Sergeant Francis Cecil Rudolph Burlefinger (1317535) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant James Leo Devine (1503292) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant George Gardner (2214238) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Dennis Hilton Potter (427021) (Air Bomber)
Flying Officer Ronald Edwin Stanley (136869) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Edward Drake Steele Tennant (410105) (Second Pilot)
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, 166/33/127