Studio portrait of NX203070 Private (Pte) Keith Wilson Longdill Krippner, 11 Small Ships Company. ...

Studio portrait of NX203070 Private (Pte) Keith Wilson Longdill Krippner, 11 Small Ships Company. Pte Krippner enlisted from Braddon, ACT, on 4 February 1944. He trained at Cowra NSW where he received injuries to his right eye from grenade fragments during a training exercise. He recovered and was sent to the 11 Small Ships Company at Morotai, Netherlands East Indies (NEI) in May 1945. In December 1945 his eye socket became infected and he wrote to his parents that he was on his way home for treatment. The C47 Dakota aircraft (A65-83 of 33 Squadron RAAF) flying him home crashed somewhere between Ambon and Darwin on 19 December 1945. He and all the passengers, mostly recently released prisoners of war (POW), and crew were presumed killed. Pte Krippner was 21.