LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Owen Keith SMITH
Service No: 425782
Born: Brisbane QLD, 9 June 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 26 April 1942
Unit: No. 298 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 298 Squadron Halifax aircraft LL273), France, 11 September 1944, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Epinac Churchyard, Saone-et-Loire, France
CWGC Additional Information: on of George Oliver Windmell Smith and Lillian Alice Smith; husband of Flora Alexandra Smith, of Borrowash, Derbyshire, England
Roll of Honour: Brisbane QLD
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At about 0036 hours on 11 September 1944 Halifax LL273 crashed while carrying out a supply drop in occupied France. The aircraft hit the ground in the Drop Zone and crashed at Mt Les Veaux near Epinac, 10 miles south west of Dijon. Four of the crew members were killed. In a Flying Accident report, the Commanding Officer of No. 298 Squadron RAF Station Tarrant Rushton, stated that: “the Pilot made an error of judgement. The Drop Zone was in mountainous country. Crews were briefed not to descend into the valley, but were if necessary to make the drop position the height of the hills on either side of the DZ. Through, I think, over enthusiasm, the Pilot seems to have gone down into the valley and hit the hills. Details to the accident have not long been to hand since we had no information until one of the crews arrived back in the UK.”
The crew members of LL273 were:
Sergeant A C Bates (1565790) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) Injured
Flight Sergeant William Morton Christie (421246) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Alan Laverick (1487441) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant L Royle (2211825) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) Injured
Pilot Officer Owen Keith Smith (425782) (Pilot)
Flying Officer Sonny Solomon (158419) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
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, 166/38/684