LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Kenneth Albert SMITH
Service No: 409803
Born: Wonthaggi VIC, 12 April 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 10 October 1941
Unit: No. 31 Squadron
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 31 Squadron Beaufighter aircraft A19-165), near Batchelor NT, 27 February 1944, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Adelaide River War Cemetery NT
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William Francis and Iris Ivy Smith; husband of Patricia Maureen Smith of Hawthorn, Victoria
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 102, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1730 hours on 27 February 1944, Beaufighter A19-165 crashed one mile off Batchelor airstrip and the north south road and the crew of two was killed. The port engine and then the starboard engine failed during a test flight. The pilot forced landed in timber on the side of a hill with the undercarriage retracted.
The crew members of A19-165 were:
Squadron Leader Reginald Lloyd Gordon DFC and Bar (485) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Kenneth Albert Smith (409803) (Navigator Wireless)
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, 166/38/439; A9845, 20
Bibliography:
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