Information on aircraft crashed on 12 October 1944 of the 31st and 34th SAAF

Good morning, I am conducting research on the aircraft accidents that occurred on the night of October 12-13, 1944 in Italy, when 6 B-24 Liberators from the 31st and 34th SAAF crashed in the Piedmont Alps. The aircraft codes, all of which took off from Celone, were KG 874, KG 999, KG 875, KH 154, KG 158, and KH 239.
I have just had the honor of accompanying the pilot Desmond Watson's nephew to the crash site of flight KH154. I would like to collect as much material as possible for a publication to make known in Italy the history and sacrifice of these crews who died to bring aid to our partisans.
Could you please point me to and send me any material in your archive related to these events?

 

Welcome aboard Simona, that’s a very worthy thing you are doing.

Watson D - International Bomber Command Centre

The crew of Consolidated Liberator VI KH154, 32 Squadron SAAF:

424243 Flight Sergeant Desmond Vincent Watson, Royal Australian Air Force, age 20:



1522169 Sergeant Duncan Carswell Roland McNab Shearer, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, age 25:



1602024 Sergeant Aubrey Ross Best, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, age 21:



1478506 Sergeant Harry Heald Bawden, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, age 20:



1895808 Sergeant Wallace Randal Young, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, age 37:



2211819 Sergeant James Houghton, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, age 19:



1213386 Sergeant Sydney Sapenne De Lisle, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, age 23:



631190 Sergeant Arthur Donald Griffin, Royal Air Force, age 25:



(All images posted by and76 on Findagrave.com)

 

Hello,

As three of the six aircraft lost carried RAAF members there is a trove of information available from the NAA.

KH154 "W" Item details

KH158 "H" View digital copy You may also wish to talk with Anne Storm, the daughter of 422612 F/O Thomas Roberts Millar RAAF, as she has been researching her dad's loss for years.

KH239 "S" View digital copy

Regards,

Dave

 

thank you very much! I had already found some of these documents. are there similar reports for English members too?

 

Unfortunately not. The SAAF service files are not easy to get either.

Regards,

Dave

 

Might this website / forum be able to help? The SAAF Forum • Index page I have not looked.

My South African interest has been the army and used a SA-based researcher to access the Archives in Pretoria. Two of us would recommend him.

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