LEST WE FORGET

Flying Officer Wesley John WHITE

Service No: 401558
Born: Kew VIC, 3 January 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 28 February 1941
Unit: No. 3 Aircraft Delivery Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 216 Squadron Dakota aircraft FD886), Algeria, 3 June 1944, Aged 28 Years
Buried: Le Petit Lac Cemetery, Algeria
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Francis John and Fanny Louisa White, of Kew, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 132, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT

At 0643Z on the morning of 3 June 1944, Dakota FD886 took off on a routine transport flight from Biakra to Oujda. It crashed into the side of a mountaintop at 0855Z and 16 persons including the crew of four were killed. The mountain top was covered by drifting cloud at the time and the aircraft was climbing steeply when it crashed. Five minutes before its own signalled ETA the Pilot took advantage of a hole in the cloud over which he had been flying for some considerable time, to get below the cloud. Upon breaking cloud the aircraft was seen to circle in a valley apparently lost with the Pilot undecided. Unaccountably the aircraft was seen to turn to port and climb into cloud away from a road and valley, which was clear, with visibility 4 to 5 miles below cloud. Almost immediately the accident occurred. An Inquiry into the accident found that “the accident was a gross error of judgement by the Pilot in flying blind unnecessarily when uncertain of his position and for the Navigator’s poor navigation as he did not use all means at his disposal.”

The crew members of FD886 were:

Lieutenant Dennis Oswald Bilse (328283V) (SAAF) (Pilot)
Warrant Officer Thomas Atherton Hindmarsh (1207526) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flying Officer Harold Kent Thompson (157316) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)
Warrant Officer I Frederick Henry Theodore Whittard (R/82421) (RCAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)

The passengers were:

Corporal John Brayam Bone (932754) (RAFVR) No. 216 Squadron
Captain Philip Cohen (311995V) (South African Medical Corps)
Corporal John Arthur Forknall (641245) (RAF)
Lieutenant Colonel Cullis William Gau (120467) (British Army, Royal Engineers)
Pilot Officer Clifford James Higgins (176098) (RAFVR)
Flight Sergeant Ralph John Hodgson (1322082) (RAFVR)
Flying Officer M S Klisz (300284) (Polish Air Force)
Flight Sergeant Francis Vincent McFarlane (1131689) (RAFVR)
Flight Lieutenant T Skarzynski (P76816) (Polish Air Force)
Flight Sergeant Thomas William Spark (1319803) (RAFVR)
Flying Officer Wesley John White (401558) (Pilot)
Sergeant Wilcock (1213938) (RAFVR) Slightly injured
Flight Sergeant John St Clair Wootton (J/22148) (RCAF)

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, 166/43/698

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