LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Charles Roland WILLIAMS DFC
Service No: 405224
Born: Townsville QLD, 19 March 1909
Enlisted in the RAAF: 3 February 1941
Unit: No. 617 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Scampton
Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), 20 July 1945
Died: Air Operations: (No. 617 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ED927), Germany, 16 May 1943, Aged 34 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Horace Edward and Hedwig Helena Williams, of Torrens Creek, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Hughenden QLD
Remembered: Panel 132, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
DFC Citation: Flying Officer Williams has taken part in many numerous successful sorties including two attacks on Berlin and others on Cologne, Essen, Hamburg, Munich and Bremen. He has also participated as Wireless Operator/Air Gunner in a daylight raid on le Creusot. His technical ability in the air has been of the highest order and his example of quiet efficiency has greatly influenced his crew. Flying Officer Williams has done fine work and his devotion to duty in the face of enemy opposition has been most commendable.” (London Gazette 20 July 1945, Page 3784)
At 2128 hours on the night of 16 May 1943, Lancaster ED927 took off from Scampton detailed to carryout operation Chastise and attack the Scorpe Dam in Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed at 2350 hours after colliding with high tension cables at Haldern, 4 kms east south east of Rees. All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of ED927 were:
Flight Lieutenant Robert Norman George Barlow DFC (401899) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Philip Sidney Burgess (124881) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Pilot Officer Alan Gillespie DFM (144205) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Flying Officer Harvey Sterling Glinz (J/10212) (RCAF) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Jack Robert George Liddell (1338282) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner) Aged 18 Years
Pilot Officer Charles Roland Williams DFC (405224) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Samuel Leslie Whillis (144619) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
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, 166/43/195