Studio portrait of Flight Sergeant Henry Adolphus Echin [Harry Chinn], RAAF, of Darlinghurst, NSW ...

Studio portrait of Flight Sergeant Henry Adolphus Echin [Harry Chinn], RAAF, of Darlinghurst, NSW (originally of Gunnedah). A fitter and turner prior to enlistment in the RAAF on 22 July 1940 (after enlisting in the RAAF Reserve on 13 May 1940), he trained as a pilot in Australia. He was attached to No. 405 'Vancouver' Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and on 17 June 1942 was promoted to the rank of Pilot Officer. On 30 June 1942 he was piloting a Halifax Mk II bomber, serial W1113 and coded 'LQ-G' en route to Bremen when the aircraft was shot down by a German night fighter and crashed at 0148 at Noordwolde in Friesland, 16 km SE of Heerenveen, Holland. All eight crew are buried in Weststellingwerf (Noordwolde) Protestant Churchyard. The crew was FO Chinn, the only Australian; R/84563 Flight Sergeant (Flt Sgt) Winston James Dickinson RCAF, from Houlton, Maine; R/83419 Sgt William Jessup Harrell RCAF, an American from Eastman, Georgia, serving in the RCAF; 571779 Sgt Alexander Simpson RAF, 64880 Flt Sgt James William Bell RCAF; R/1284966 Sgt Walter Percy Beare RCAF; R/56246 Flt Sgt Paul Patrick Augustus Oneson RCAF; and 759300 Flt Sgt Reginald Thomas Adams RAFVR.