LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Keith Moore WOODHEAD
Service No: 404274
Born: Brisbane QLD, 6 December 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 19 July 1940
Unit: No. 104 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 104 Squadron Wellington aircraft W5416), North Sea, 20 August 1941, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles and Mary Ann Rose Woodhead, of Brisbane. Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Brisbane QLD
Remembered: Panel 63, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 132, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2240 hours on 19 August 1941 Wellington W5416 took off from Driffield to bomb Kiel, Germany. The aircraft was last heard on radio at 0318 hours on 20 August trying to raise Bircham Newton. Nothing further was heard from W5416 and it did not return to base. The body of one crew member was washed ashore at Busum on the north-west coast of Germany about 100 kms north of Bremen. It was later recorded that the remaining missing crew members had lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of W5416 were:
Flight Lieutenant William Westbrooke Burton (61045) (RAFVR)
Sergeant James Haney (1280935) (RAFVR) Remains recovered
Sergeant Harry Ellse Johnson (942099) (RAFVR)
Flight Sergeant Douglas Crosbie Marshall (R/57837) (RCAF)
Pilot Officer Jack Goode Rogers (J/15013) (RCAF)
Sergeant Keith Moore Woodhead (404274) (Pilot)
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, 163/179/96