LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Harold PUUSEPP
Service No: 402452
Born: Tallinn, Estonia, 26 September 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 19 August 1940 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 1 Coastal Operational Training Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1 (Coastal Operational Training Unit Hudson aircraft AM786), Cumberland, 28 December 1941, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Silloth (Causewayhead) Cemetery, Holme Low, Cumberland
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Peter and Emilie Puusepp, of Bondi, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Bondi NSW
Remembered: Panel 129, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: University of Sydney World War II Roll of Honour, Camperdown NSW
At 1112 hours on 28 December 1941 Hudson AM786, crashed and burnt out while engaged on a practice bombing flight. The aircraft crashed at Waybridge Farm, 1.5 miles from Maryport, Cumberland, and all the crew members were killed. In a report on the flying accident, the Wing Commander Commanding Officer stated “it may be an error on the part of the Pilot, who allowed his engines to run cold.”
The crew members of Hudson AM786 were:
Sergeant Richard Wyke Allsop (402455) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Gerald Ian Dacres Backhouse (400487) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Robert Gillespie Luke (400722) (Observer)
Sergeant Harold Puusepp (402452) (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 Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/153/20
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line
Bibliography:
Winter, V.A. (Vincent Adams) (408547) Noble Six Hundred: the story of the Empire Air Training Scheme with special reference to Australians who trained in Southern Rhodesia, V.A. Winter Brighton VIC 3186