Brothers Killed In Action, Part 4

[Dean]

It's been a while since I first started looking into brothers who were killed in service of the RAAF during WWII.

In the last few days I have hit a couple of milestones. Firstly I have since also managed to find about 5 sets of brothers who were served soley in the army and were killed. Added to the number of brothers I found in the last few days this now takes the total number of brothers killed in service of Australia (that I have found) to over 100.

The other milestone is that I have also found the first Father and Son killed in service, although the father, a Captain in the Army, died of an illness only months before his son died in RAAF service.

The names of those brothers in the RAAF are listed below. The names marked with a * indicates those brothers with a sibling in the Army or Navy. Skerrett, marked with a ** indicates father/son relationship.

Austin
Balleine*
Barrett
Bernard
Biltoft
Birk
Birtles
Blessing
Bolton
Brady
Brander
Brewin
Brock
Bucknell
Chandler
Chapman*
Clarke
Cheatle
Darby
Dey
Dimmock
Dodds
Eddison*
Ellis
Evers
Felgate
Ferguson
Fisher
Foskett
Fowler
Frith
Gehrmann
Gibson
Giddings
Gilkeson
Hampton
Hawden
Hay
Hoffman
Hollingworth
Hornibrook
Howiss
Hutchinson
Irvin*
Jarvis
Jefferies
Kelly
Knight
Krone
Lake
Laman
Leavey
Lee
Ley
Logue*
Lopez
Loton
Loveday
Lutz
Menzies
Menzies
Methven*
Middleton
Miller
Milne
O’Donohue
Osborne
Oshlack
Pickup
Pope
Raffen
Ratcliffe
Richins
Rimmington
Riordan
Rutherford
Rutter
Sandell
Sandilands
Sheekey
Skerrett**
Shying
Smith
Steele
Storer
Sullivan
Thyer
Tippett
Tweedie
Underwood
Watson
Webb
Witts
Wixted
Wood
Wood
Yarra
Yorkston

The search continues.....

This post has been edited by Dean on Apr 9 2008, 08:13 PM

[gordon]

Well done Dean and congratulations.

Who were the Blessing brothers? There was a Norm Blessing in 78 Sqn from SA. I wonder if he was related?

Gordon

[Dean]

They were:

Sqn Ldr William Walter Blessing DSO, DFC of 105 Sqn (RAF) who died 07 Jul 44 and
Sgt Wilson George Blessing of 272 Sqn (RAF) and died 15 Jun 42. Their parents were Walter and Elizabeth Blessing of Ryrie Street, Braidwood, NSW.

Wilson served in 272 Sqn RAF and died in the Mediterranean theatre. He is listed on the Braidwood War Memorial.

William was killed with 105 Sqn in France flying in Mosquito ML964. Sqn Ldr Blessing was acting as the Primary Target Marker for an attack on Caen but was attacked by an enemy aircraft and badly damaged. He ordered the Co-Pilot to bale out who managed to land safely in friendly territory, however William Blessing failed to escape and was killed. He is on the Glen Innes war memorial.

Originally William Blessing joined the Army on 24 June 40 serving as a Corporal in A Company, AIF, at the Miowera Depot before discharging on 19 Sep 40 to join the RAAF on 11 Oct 40. Shortly after the death of Wilson in 42 their sister, Bessie, enlisted in the RAAF serving as a Dental Orderly with 10 EFTS at Temora. After the death of William she was discharged on 16 Dec 44. Both are on the Roll of Honour at Port Pirie.


This post has been edited by Dean on Apr 21 2008, 04:34 PM

[gordon]

Thanks Dean for that detailed reply.

So my mate Norm isn't related then. :huh: Just not that common a surname.

Gordon

[Don Clark]

Dean,

Though not killed in action you might want to add the Learmonth brothers, too, mate:

WC Charles Cuthbertson Learmonth DFC & Bar 385
14 Squadron RAAF 6 January 1944 WA
http://www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/awm108/011/011546.pdf

and his 2 AIF brother:
Lt John Noel Learmonth VX114
2/3 FD REGT RAA 10 May 1944 Germany died suddenly while PoW
http://www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/awm108/011/011547.pdf

[Dean]

Many thanks Don. And they don't need to have been killed in action either, merely in service.

[gph]

Nice bit of sleuthing there Sherlock Norman! B)

[Dean]

103 sets of RAAF, RAAF/Army, RAAF/Navy brothers and still going. And that's not including the 4/5 sets of pure Army brothers either.

[gordon]

Yes impressive stuff Dean.

It will be interesting to see what number u end up with.

Gordon