LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant William Oliver SHAW
Service No: 424066
Born: Dulwich Hill NSW, 9 April 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 21 July 1942
Unit: No. 49 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Fulbeck
Died: Air Operations: (No. 49 Squadron Lancaster aircraft PB385), Germany, 2 November 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Thomas William and Gertrude Emelia Shaw, of Dulwich Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1616 hours on the night of 2 November 1944 Lancaster PB385 took off from Fulbeck detailed to bomb Dusseldorf, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. It was later established that the aircraft caught fire in the air and crashed at Golzheim presumably as a result of enemy action. Golzheim is a village 18 miles south west of
Cologne, Germany. All the crew had been killed.
The crew members of PB385 were:
Flight Sergeant Stanley Claude Bennett (1620198) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Alexander McGeoch Findlay (1556361) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Flying Officer Peter Edward George Harford (161805) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant James Baird Mitchell (1825675) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant John Albert Rix (1634350) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Henry Roxby (1676062) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flight Sergeant William Oliver Shaw (424066) (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, 166/37/589