LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Alan Mackintosh WOODFORD
Service No: 410778
Born: Deloraine TAS, 28 July 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 31 January 1942 (at Melbourne VIC)
Unit: No. 15 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Mildenhall
Died: Air Operations: (No. 15 Squadron Lancaster aircraft R5739), Germany, 20 February 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of the Revd. Thomas Philip Hubert Woodford and Mary Louise Woodford, of Moonee Ponds, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Newport VIC
Remembered: Panel 132, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 0006 hours on the morning of 19 February 1944 Lancaster R5739 took off from Mildenhall to bomb Leipzig, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. A 1948 report by a Missing Research and Enquiry team stated “the aircraft was shot down and crashed near Goeritzberg on 20 February 1944. The village of Goeritzberg is approximately 36 miles south west of Leipzig and Jenna is about 10 miles west of Goeritzberg. Six of the crew members were killed and one became a Prisoner of War.”
The crew members of R5739 were:
Pilot Officer Charles Selwyn Benson (421007) (RNZAF) (Second Pilot)
Flying Officer Frederick Lorne Chalmers (J/23463) (RCAF) (Bomb Aimer)
Flying Officer John Fenley (138139) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant D F Frame (1573230) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) PoW
Pilot Officer Max James Hurley (420755) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Gordon McMaster (423845) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Hubert Frank Moroni (1389016) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Alan Mackintosh Woodford (410778) (Wireless Operator Air)
In a later report Sergeant Frame stated “The aircraft was shot down south west of the target after the bombs were dropped. Hurley was still alive when the aircraft was going down and exploded and must have been killed. I did not bale out but was thrown 30 yards from the machine and lost consciousness. When I came to I noticed the nose of the aircraft buried in the ground but not burnt in any way. The Germans removed me to hospital and two weeks later they told me that Hurley and the other six were killed.”
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, 166/44/106