Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Raey Hilton Cheatle was a flight sergeant in the RAF. On the 7 of february 1945 the Lancaster airplane ND961 of which Raey was the wireless operator, went on a mission witj 177 other allied aircrafts to bomb a waterway junction in Ladbergen Germany. On their way back his plane collided with an other RAF Lancaster above already liberated Holland. Raey and all the other crew members did not survied the crash. Raey, 20 years of age, is burried in Woensel (Eindhoven) cemetery Holland. 

In february 2020, at the Sonseweg 39 near the village Son en Breugel in the south of the Netherlands a monument has been eracted, to commemorate the crash of the 2 lancaster bombers ND961and PB181. Both belonged to No. 5 group bomber command. At approximately 00.30 hours they collided on their way back from a bombing mission above the Sonse heath between the villages of Best and Son en Breugel. ND961 crashed near the Zandstraat in Son en Breugel, PB 181 crashed the Lisseven in Best.

Only the pilot of PB181, flight lieutenant A.P. Weber survived by parachute the collision. All other 15 members died in that early morning of he 8 of february 1945.