LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant William Thomas Collins STYLES
Service No: 421767
Born: Melbourne VIC, 24 May 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 28 March 1942 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 3 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 3 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit Oxford aircraft W6637), Bristol Channel area, 3 December 1943, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Mr. and Mrs. William Styles; husband of Hilda Rose Styles, of Collaroy, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 194, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 131, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On the afternoon of 3 December 1943 Oxford W6637 was detailed for local flying. The aircraft took off from South Cerney at 1455 hours failed to return to base. The aircraft was without identification friend or foe (IFF) and radio when flying in the poor weather conditions. There was a rapid deterioration in the weather after take-off although another instructor succeeded in landing at South Cerney an hour and 25 minutes after Flying Officer Perry took off. A series of Observer Corps plots were received extending from Worcester area at 1807 hours and the Chepstow Filton area at 1839hrs. No trace of W6637 or of the crew members could be found and it was considered that the aircraft must have crashed either in the Bristol Channel or the Welsh Hills.
The crew members of W6637 were:
Flying Officer Leonard Charles Perry (414508) (Instructor Pilot)
Sergeant William Thomas Collins Styles (421767) (Pilot under instruction)
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, 166/38/360