Outdoor portrait of 408874 Flying Officer Albert Otto Peters RAAF. A school teacher of Tooradin, ...

Outdoor portrait of 408874 Flying Officer Albert Otto Peters RAAF. A school teacher of Tooradin, Victoria, he enlisted on 20 June 1941. He trained in Australia and Canada as an Observer and Navigator and arrived in England in June 1943 where he undertook operational training. He was then posted for operational service to 455 Squadron RAAF, Coastal Command, and later attached to 53 Squadron RAF, Coastal Command, based at RAF St Eval in Cornwall. On the night of 13 June 1944, the 53 Squadron B-24 Liberator BZ818/C, in which he crewed as navigator, took off from St Eval at 2130 hours to conduct an anti-submarine patrol south-west of Ushant, France in the Bay of Biscay. At 2355 hours the aircraft sent a flash message that they had sighted a U-boat on the surface and were going to attack. Nothing further was heard and the aircraft failed to return. It was learned later that U-270 had shot down the Liberator at 2359 hours after the aircraft's inner starboard engine was hit by the U-boat's 20mm anti-aircraft fire. The German report said that the aircraft had dropped four bombs and crashed into the sea 600 metres behind the boat which was not damaged in the attack. All of the Liberator's crew were posted missing and later presumed killed. U-270 was sunk on 12 August 1944 by an Australian Sunderland aircraft of 461 Squadron RAAF. Albert Peters was married to Ruby Anzac Peters; he was aged 35 years at the time of his death. Other Australian crew members of the Liberator were wireless air-gunners Flight Sergeants K J Campbell, R H Curner and I E Martin. All of their names are recorded on the Air Force Memorial to those with no known grave at Runnymede, England.