LEST WE FORGET

Sergeant Eric Leslie WALDRON

Service No: 401256
Born: Prahran VIC, 27 May 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 5 January 1941
Unit: No. 1404 Meteorological Flight (RAF), RAF Station St Eval
Died: Aircraft Accident: (No. 1404 Meteorological Flight Hudson aircraft T9460), Cornwall, 21 July 1942, Aged 22 Years
Buried: St Mawgan (Lanherne) Roman Catholic Cemetery, Cornwall
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John Leslie and Dorothy Agnes Vera Waldron, of McKinnon, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Stawell VIC
Remembered: Panel 131, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT

On 21 July 1942, Hudson T9460 took off from St Eval on an operational meteorological reconnaissance flight. The aircraft crashed at 1450 hours when it hit cliffs at Kellan Head, Port Quin, Cornwall, and all the crew members were killed. The aircraft had been in the air for 4 hours 55 minutes. The aircraft had returned from the met sortie in conditions of low cloud with a base of about 150 feet and 1,000 feet thick. When over the aerodrome the aircraft called on the radio and it was directed to land at Predannack. The aircraft acknowledged this. Instead of flying to Predannack the aircraft flew along the coast, and was seen flying at 50 feet across Watergate Bay in a northerly direction. It appeared that the pilot was following the coast northwards at a low altitude instead of climbing above the low cloud and setting course for Predannick. An Inquiry into the accident found that: “low cloud was the main contributory factor to the accident. Also the Pilot had disregarded instructions to proceed to Predannack, and it was bad airmanship in trying to follow a difficult coastline in bad visibility.”

The crew members of T9460 were:

Sergeant Derek John Newcombe (923434) (RAFVR) (Observer)
Sergeant Douglas Ellerington Peart (1377809) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Morris Solomon (402679) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Eric Leslie Waldron (401256) (Wireless Air Gunner)

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, 163/176/313

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