LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Edward Walters ROSSER
Service No: 410096
Born: Corowa NSW, 4 May 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 8 November 1921 (at Melbourne VIC)
Unit: No. 106 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Metheringham
Died: Air Operations: (No. 106 Squadron Lancaster aircraft JB648), Germany, 22 March 1944, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Durnbach War Cemetery, Bad Tolz, Bayern, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Edward Walters Rosser and Alma Charlotte Rosser, of Rutherglen, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Rutherglen VIC
Remembered: Panel 129, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1845 hours on the night of 22 March 1944 Lancaster JB648 took off from Metheringham detailed to bomb Frankfurt, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. A Missing Research and Enquiry team report stated “on the night of 22 March 1944 at approximately 2300 hours a heavy bomber was observed approaching from a southerly direction its engines on fire, above the river Main near Sommerhof Park. The aircraft exploded and wreckage was scattered over both sides of the river. Local residents thought that the main parts of the fuselage and the engines fell into the river which is 150 metres wide and 5 metres deep with very strong under currents.” Six of the crew members were killed and one became a Prisoner of War.
The crew members of JB648 were:
Sergeant John Edward Charnock (2209288) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner) PoW
Sergeant Norman Joseph Goss (1318695) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Ernest Charles Elam Harris (1583153) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Edward Walter Rosser (410096) (Pilot)
Sergeant Edward Gordon Sears (1335581) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Herbert Dennis Steele (1486363) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Douglas White (1534947) (RAFVR) (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 Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/36/225