LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Eugene Victor ROY
Service No: 408525
Born: Worsley WA, 23 October 1911
Enlisted in the RAAF: 26 April 1941 (at Melbourne VIC)
Unit: No. 5 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 5 Operational Training Unit Beaufort aircraft L4480), near Turnberry, Scotland, 20 August 1942, Aged 30 Years
Buried: Danure Cemetery, Ayrshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Eugene Chapman Roy and Winifred Roy; husband of Dorothy May Roy, of Croxton, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Melbourne VIC
Remembered: Panel 129, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 20 August 1942 Beaufort L4480 was detailed to carry out a non-operation night training exercise. The aircraft crashed at Greenhead Farm near Turnberry soon after take-off by night 0025 hours. A goose neck flare path was in operation. All the crew members were killed. In a Unit report on the accident it stated “from examination of the wreckage the aircraft appears to have hit the ground at great speed and whilst turning to port. The rudder bias control is just off central and the fore and aft control is normal. The pilot must have had height, as the crash is on the other side of hills about 400 feet from the aerodrome.”
The crew members of L4480 were:
Pilot Officer Denis Henry Battrick (125307) (RAFVR) (Observer)
Pilot Officer Eugene Victor Roy (408525) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Donald Gordon Taylor (R/73449) (RCAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant William McDonald Vacheresse (R/76480) (RCAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
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, 163/55/209