LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Eric Stanley TAYLOR
Service No: 410573
Born: Mandalay, Burma, 29 august 1913
Enlisted in the RAAF: 30 January 1942 (at Melbourne VIC)
Unit: No. 2 Aircraft Delivery Unit, No. 216 Group (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 216 Group Baltimore aircraft FW770), Sudan, 12 August 1944, Aged 30 Years
Buried: Khartoum War Cemetery, Sudan
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Stanley John and Dorothy Margret Taylor; husband of Berys Mary Taylor, of Elwood, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Melbourne VIC
Remembered: Panel 131, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On a non-operational ferry flight on 12 August 1944, Baltimore FW770 crashed near Malakal, approx 95 miles north of Wau in Anglo Egyptian Sudan, Abyssinia. The aircraft dived steeply into a soft marsh land, disintegrated on impact, burnt, and sank into soft ground.
Flight Lieutenant McDonald stated: “I was flying one of six Hurricanes in a convoy led by a Baltimore from 216 Group. At approx 8,000 feet, after about half an hours flying out of Malakal, we were faced with a “front”, and the Leader gave the signal Echelon starboard, so that he could turn away from it. The leader started to turn to port, but it was left a little late for at that moment we entered the cloud. The Hurricanes in Nos. 3, 5 and 7 positions on the port side were unable to get into echelon starboard because the trailing aerial of the Baltimore cut. So we broke away from the convoy and went back to Malakal.” Three of the Hurricanes also crashed and their pilots were killed.
The crew members of FW770 were:
Leading Aircraftman W Dolby (208310V) (SAAF) (Air Mechanic)
Flight Sergeant Fred Marlor (102841) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Warrant Officer Robert Dennis Smart (1202230) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Eric Stanley Taylor (410573) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Leading Aircraftman C J P Van Rhyn (209073V) (SAAF) (Air Mechanic)
The Pilots of the Hurricanes were:
Flight Sergeant John Kevin Flanagan (1268392) (RAFVR)
Sergeant John Payne (1583152) (RAFVR) No. 213 Squadron RAF
Flying Officer William Henry Wagstaff (141892) (RAFVR)
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, 166/39/339