LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Frederick Carl SCHULTZ
Service No: 409854
Born: Thornbury VIC, 17 June 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 10 October 1941
Unit: No. 295 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 295 Squadron Halifax aircraft ES132), Somerset, 11 June 1943, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Heanton Punchardon (St Augustine) Cemetery, Devon
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Carl Hugo Schultz and Annie Schultz, of Hawthorn East, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Ferntree Gully VIC
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1200 hours on 11 June 1943, Halifax ES132 crashed at Ashley Coombe, Forlock Weir, Somerset, when out an operational ferry from base to Portreath. Four of the crew members were killed and two injured.
The crew members of ES132 were:
Flying Officer Alan Douglas Gardner (120390) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant John Nelson Hansen (968451) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant E J Rogers (1504842) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) Injured
Flight Sergeant Frederick Carl Schultz (409854) (Second Pilot)
Flying Officer William Angus Bartlett Stokes (J/18752) (RCAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flying Officer B L Tomkins (116639) (RAFVR) (Pilot) Injured
A Flying Accident report stated: “the Pilot was instructed to fly from Helmesley South to Portreath via Bridgewater to Minehead. The weather deteriorated at Bridgewater, and the Pilot struck the coast and followed it just out to sea and was forced lower and lower almost to sea level, with the cloud base right down to the sea. The Navigator instructed the Pilot to steer a course of 270 degrees which would be approximately parallel to the coast. The Pilot had just started to climb when he saw some trees ahead. He pulled the stick back and that was his last recollection.” The Group Captain RAF Helmsley South stated: “an avoidable accident arising from (1) faulty method of navigation (2) an endeavour to keep sight of the ground, (3) failure to note the height of the ground over which the aircraft had to pass. It has the indications of lack of experience.”
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, 166/37/115