Studio portrait of 426426 Flight Sergeant Dudley Clive Bates RAAF. A clerk of Brisbane, Qld, he ...

Studio portrait of 426426 Flight Sergeant Dudley Clive Bates RAAF. A clerk of Brisbane, Qld, he enlisted as an 18 year old on 22 June 1942. He trained in Australia as a Wireless Air Gunner and embarked for England on 6 March 1943 where he undertook operational training and conversion training to Lancaster bombers. He was then attached for operations to 57 Squadron RAF, Bomber Command, and later to 9 Squadron RAF, Bomber Command based at RAF Bardney in Lincolnshire. On the night of 18 April 1944, the 9 Squadron Lancaster in which he crewed as tail-gunner was shot down over Paris, France, while attacking the railway marshalling yards before the D-Day landings. He died aged 20 years along with three other crew, all members of the RAF. Their deaths were advised by the International Red Cross eight months later. They are buried side-by-side in the Commonwealth War Graves section of Clichy North Cemetery in north-west Paris. Three crew members, including two Australians, survived baling out of the aircraft. One Australian, Flying Officer J A Smith, pilot, and and one RAF member made their way back to England through a neutral country. The other Australian, Flying Officer K W Light DFM was captured and become a Prisoner of War of the Germans.