LEST WE FORGET

Pilot Officer Geoffrey TYLER

Service No: 415286
Born: Perth WA, 9 December 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 17 August 1941
Unit: No. 7 Squadron (RAF), RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 7 Squadron Lancaster aircraft JB543), Germany, 16 December 1943, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Thomas Frederick and Bessie Margaret Tyler, of Victoria Park, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Perth WA
Remembered: Panel 131, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Remembered: Honour Avenues, Kings Park WA

Lancaster JB543 took off from RAF Oakington at 1621 hours on the night of 16/17th December 1943 to bomb Berlin. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it failed to return to base. JB 543 was one of four aircraft from the Squadron that failed to return from the mission. It was established post war that the aircraft was shot down by a night fighter and crashed at Wilsun, a small German town 10 kms north west of Neuenhaus and not far from the Dutch border.

The crew members of JB543 were:

Flight Sergeant Ronald Robert McMillan (425409) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Alexander Smillie (1349728) (RAFVR) (Navigator) PoW
Pilot Officer Geoffrey Tyler (415286) (Pilot)
Sergeant Alfred Arthur Tucker (1385164) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Clifford Reginald Underhill (1581877) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant William Primrose Wilson (1452338) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Denis Woolford (1321169) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer) PoW

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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/40/116

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