LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Herbert William Cuthbert WATTS
Service No: 402210
Born: Melbourne VIC, 16 March 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 24 June 1940 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 156 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Alconbury
Died: Air Operations: (No. 156 Squadron Wellington aircraft Z1619), Germany, 28 June 1942, Aged 28 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfal, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Hector William and Ida Gertrude Watts; husband of Josephine Marguarite Watts, of Rose Bay, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Rose Bay NSW
Remembered: Panel 132, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2313 hours on the night of 27 June 1942 Wellington Z1619 took off from Alconbury detailed to bomb Bremen, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed at Westrum Kreis Meppen and all the crew members were killed.
The crew members of Z1619 were:
Pilot Officer William Henderson (128966) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer John Elwyn Jones (1259649) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Norman Thomas Owen (1280353) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant George Towns (1182661) (RAFVR) (Observer)
Pilot Officer Herbert William Cuthbert Watts (402210) (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, 163/176/301