LEST WE FORGET

Warrant Officer Gordon Reginald SAVILLE

Service No: 428798
Born: Lakemba NSW, 23 August 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 10 October 1942
Unit: No. 115 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Witchford
Died: Air Operations: (No. 115 Squadron Lancaster aircraft HK555), Germany, 4 April 1945, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Ernest and Edith Blanche Saville; husband of Audrey Hilda Saville, of Punchbowl, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Punchbowl NSW
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT

At 1911 hours on the night of 4 April 1945 Lancaster HK555 took off from Witchford detailed to bomb the Leuna synthetic oil plant at Mersburg, Germany. When outward bound at 2020 hours, HK555 collided with No. 186 Squadron (RAF) Lancaster aircraft RA533 with the wreckage from both aircraft being strewn between the Waldhof Elgershausen and Griefenthal, 7 kms south of Sinn. All the crew members of HK555and six of the seven crew members of RA533 were killed.

The crew members of HK555 were:

Flying Officer Albert Edward Adams (149989) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant John Thomas Buckley (1690938) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Wilfrid Gordon Carr (1683518) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Pilot Officer Eric Laurence Luxton (J/94582) (RCAF) (Second Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Charles Edward Marchant (1604373) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Lieutenant Thomas Anthony O’Halloran (183181) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Warrant Officer Gordon Reginald Saville (428798) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Ernest Sheavills (651465) (RAF) (Air Gunner)

The crew members of RA533 were:

Flight Sergeant Sydney Raymond Bacon (423037) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Albert Richard Baker (2210627) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant George Ballinger (1592037) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Pilot Officer A E Bartlett (139906) (RAF) (Navigator) Injured
Flying Officer James Arthur Gordon Beck DFC (408434) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer William George Evans (196117) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Peter McNiven (1826326) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)

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, 166/37/1018

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