LEST WE FORGET

Pilot Officer Geoffrey Edgar TAAFFE

Service No: 421099
Born: Summer Hill NSW, 6 May 1919
Enlisted in the RAAF: 7 December 1941
Unit: No. 2 Operational Training Unit
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 2 Operational Training Unit Wirraway aircraft A20-349), near Mildura VIC, 21 January 1943, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Mildura Public Cemetery, Victoria
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Robert James Taaffe and Harrietta Dorothy Taaffe, of Ashfield, New South Wales
Roll of Honour: Ashfield NSW
Remembered: Panel 113, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: St John’s Anglican Church Cenotaph, Ashfield NSW

On the 21st January 1943, Wirraway A20-349 collided with Wirraway A20-277 during an aerobatics combat exercise at a height of about 7,000 feet. Both aircraft crashed about 3 miles from the Mildura landing field, and three were killed in the accident with Flight L:ieutenant Menzies baling out and surviving.

The crew members of A20-349 were:

Sergeant Alan Frederick Bates (413510) (Pilot under training)
Pilot Officer Geoffrey Edgar Taaffe (421099) (Staff Pilot)

The crew members of A20-277 were:

Flight Lieutenant James Stuart Menzies (250816) (Staff Pilot) Slightly injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 12 July 1946
Sergeant John Michael David Ryan (414839) (Pilot under training)

References:

Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/39/15; A9845, 174
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line

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