LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant George Windsor SAYER
Service No: 400212
Born: Melbourne VIC, 6 June 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 21 July 1940
Unit: No. 30 Squadron
Died: Air Operations: (No. 30 Squadron Beaufighter aircraft A19-1), Buna PNG, 23 September 1942, Aged 28 Years
Buried: Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery PNG
CWGC Additional Information: Son of George and Alice Sayer, of West Footscray, Victoria
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 102, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 7 March 1942, Flight Sergeant Sayer evaded capture by sailing in a small boat from Java to Western Australia with a party of RAF and RAAF members.
On 23 September 1942, Beaufighter A19-1 was one of a formation of aircraft detailed to attack Buna, Papua New Guinea. Intense anti-aircraft fire was encountered and at 1310 hours A19-1 was seen to dive towards trees and not re-appear. Smoke was seen to rise from the spot on the north-west corner of the runway at Buna. In 1946 a RAAF search party found the wreck of the aircraft in the vicinity of the village of Musita not far from Buna.
The crew members of A19-1 were:
Sergeant Archibald Sylvian Mairet (35940) (Wireless Air Observer)
Flight Sergeant George Windsor Sayer (400212) (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 A9301, 400212
Bibliography:
RAAF Directorate of Public Relations, These Eagles, Australian War Memorial Canberra, 1942 – Chapters: Ubiquity, Sea Saga
Ilbery, P.L.T. (Peter Leslie Thomas) (422957) Hatching an Air Force: 2SFTS, 5SFTS, 1BFTS Uranquinty and Wagga Wagga, Banner Books Maryborough QLD 4650, 2002
Parnell, N.M. (Neville M.) Whispering Death: A history of the RAAF’s Beaufighter Squadrons, AH & AW Reed, Terry Hills NSW, 1980
Wilson, S. (Stewart) Beaufort, Beaufighter and Mosquito in Australian Service, Aerospace Publications Weston Creek ACT 2611, 1990