LOSS OF LANCASTER W4316
(AR-Q)
OF 460 SQUADRON RAAF
ON 12/13 JUNE 1943
DURING A RAID OVER BOCHUM
Lancaster W4316 (AR-Q), "Q" for Queenie, of 460 Squadron RAAF crashed into the river near Grafhorst, The Netherlands, on 12 June 1943 while on a raid to Bochum. This Lancaster was piloted by either Vaughan R.O. The crew of Lancaster W4316 was as follows:-
Ronald Oliver Vaughan (RAF 1388329) (KIA - pilot)
Leonard Frederick Charles Day (RAF 1433929) (KIA)
Charles William Ross Young (RAF 132851) (KIA)
David Crawford Paterson Lundie (RAAF 412986) (KIA)
Dennis Arthur Thomas (RAF 1336716) (KIA)
J. C. Cornish (RCAF 15677) (POW)
Andrew Gordon (RAAF 409404) (KIA)
Photo:- Gerben van 't Ende
A Memorial in Grafhorst, The
Netherlands, depicting the tail of the Lancaster sinking
into the water. The names of the crew members who died, are written on the
memorial
Photo:- Gerben van 't Ende
Closeup of the Memorial
The river near Grafhorst
Photo:- Gerben van 't Ende
The river near Grafhorst
Photo:- Gerben van 't Ende
The Memorial in Grafhorst
Photo:- Gerben van 't Ende
Headstones for Andrew Gordon, David Crawford Paterson Lundie and Ronald Oliver Vaughan
Photo:- Gerben van 't Ende
Headstone for Flight Sergeant Andrew Gordon
Photo:- Gerben van 't Ende
Headstone for Flight Sergeant David Crawford Paterson Lundie
Photo:- Gerben van 't Ende
Headstone for Sergeant Ronald Oliver Vaughan
Photo:- Gerben van 't Ende
Headstones for Leonard Frederick Charles Day, Dennis Arthur Thomas and Charles William Ross Young
Photo:- Gerben van 't Ende
Headstone for Sergeant Leonard Frederick Charles Day
Photo:- Gerben van 't Ende
Headstone for Sergeant Dennis Arthur Thomas
Photo:- Gerben van 't Ende
Headstone for Flying Officer Charles William Ross Young
I was contacted by a Stephen Phillip from Skipton, North Yorkshire, UK on 14 July 2010. In 1943 his mother was in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force stationed at RAF Ludford Magna in Lincolnshire. Stephen went on to tell me:-
She was friends with Flight Sergeant David Lundie stationed at nearby RAF Binbrook. She lost touch with David in June 1943. She said that a letter she had written to David about that time had been returned to her, unopened later in 1943. Naturally she was very concerned about this. About a year later and quite by chance, she saw in ‘Flight’ magazine an entry about David Lundie and the crew ‘In Memoriam’, ‘lost over Dusseldorf’. From very recent information received, we now know that the target was actually Bochum .
Lives move on, but somehow, she never quite forgot about David. She married and had a daughter and a son (me!) and grandsons as well. My father died in 1971 and my mother has continued to be an inspiration to all those who know her, coping with whatever life throws at her.
She was recently at the (now closed) RAF Binbrook and found that there is an organisation to remember the sacrifice of the Australians and other nations in squadrons such as 460, David Lundie’s squadron. She got into conversation with the man in attendance that day and he kindly looked through their records and helped her to piece together what happened on that night in June 1943.
To find that David and the crew are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Grafthorst in The Netherlands has given her some final closure on events of 67 years ago. However, further research by me on the serial number of the Lancaster (kindly supplied by the gentleman at Binbrook) unearthed pictures of a memorial and the graves on your website and I have sent a link to your website to my mother who is understandably surprised and comforted to know of David and the crew’s resting place. The memorial is a very fitting reminder of all the sacrifice and hardship suffered by those young men, defending the freedoms my generation and others take so completely for granted.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I'd like to thank Gerben van 't Ende of Grafhorst and Stephen Phillip of Skipton for their assistance with this home page.
Can anyone help with more information?
"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products
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This page first produced 1 January 2005
This page last updated 19 February 2020
