LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Douglas Austin WOODS
Service No: 420731
Born: North Sydney NSW, 16 January 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 9 November 1941
Unit: No. 514 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Waterbeach
Died: Air Operations: (No. 514 Squadron Lancaster aircraft LL620), France, 30 June 1944, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Coulvain Churchyard, Calvados, France
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Rupert Austin Woods, and Edna Victoria Finlay Woods, of Wollstonecraft, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 132, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: St Giles Anglican Church Honour Roll and various memorials, Greenwich NSW
At 1819 hours on the 30 June 1944, Lancaster LL620 took off from Waterbeach detailed to bomb a key road junction at Villers- Bocage, France. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off, and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed at Coulvain (Calvados), some 5 kms south west of Villers-Bocage. All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of LL620 were:
Flight Sergeant Eric Charles Coles (1624295) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Hilary Louis Doherty (178475) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Kenneth Royston Heron (1143288) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Francis Longson (138083) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Ernest Thomas Shanks (1384669) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Flight Sergeant William Charles Udell (1851507) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flying Officer Douglas Austin Woods (429731) (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, 166/44/150
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line