Gordon Albert FRENCH

Gordon Albert FRENCH Update Details

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FRENCH, Gordon Albert

Service Number:	425147
Enlisted:	31 January 1942
Last Rank:	Flight Sergeant
Last Unit:	No. 106 Squadron (RAF)
Born:	Toowoomba, Queensland, 19 October 1921
Home Town:	Crows Nest, Toowoomba, Queensland
Schooling:	Crows Nest State School
Occupation:	Grocer's assistant
Died:	Flying Battle, Furth, Nuremberg, Germany, 11 August 1943, aged 21 years
Cemetery:	Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany Plot: 11. A. 2., Durnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Crows Nest (Qld) War Memorial, International Bomber Command Centre Memorial, Maryborough No. 3 Wireless Air Gunners' School Memorial Wall, Toowoomba Roll of Honour WW2, Toowoomba WW2 Roll of Honour Book, Toowoomba War Memorial (Mothers' Memorial)

World War 2 Service

31 Jan 1942:	Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Aircraftman 2 (WW2), 425147, Brisbane, Queensland
31 Jan 1942:	Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Sergeant, 425147
23 May 1942:	Promoted Royal Australian Air Force, Leading Aircraftman, No. 3 Initial Training School Sandgate
10 Dec 1942:	Promoted Royal Australian Air Force, Sergeant, No. 1 Wireless Air Gunnery School Ballarat, Evans Head, New South Wales
15 Jan 1943:	Embarked Royal Australian Air Force, Sergeant, 425147, Melbourne, Victoria
7 Apr 1943:	Transferred Royal Australian Air Force, Sergeant, Operational Training Units (RAF), 16 Operational Training Unit (RAF) Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, England
10 Jun 1943:	Promoted Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Sergeant, Operational Training Units (RAF), 16 Operational Training Unit (RAF)
3 Aug 1943:	Transferred Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Sergeant, No. 106 Squadron (RAF), Syerston, Nottingham, England
11 Aug 1943:	Involvement Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Sergeant, 425147, No. 106 Squadron (RAF), Air War NW Europe 1939-45

Help us honour Gordon Albert French's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Paul Trevor

The three enlisted sons of Albert and Lucy French (nee Donaldson) of Crows Nest, Queensland:-

QX41220 Gunner Eric Donaldson French (/explore/people/693432) (/explore/people/693432) (/explore/people/693432) - returned to Australia;

QX1071 Cpl. John Alexander French VC (/explore/people/628698) (/explore/people/628698) (/explore/people/628698) - killed in Action at Milne Bay, New Guinea on 4 September 1942;

425147 F/Sgt. Gordon Albert French - killed in Flying Battle over Germany on the 11 August 1943.

Flight Sergeant Gordon Albert French served during the Second World War as a RAAF personnel attached to Royal Air Force, No. 106 Squadron (RAF).

F/Sgt. Gordon A. French, a rear Air Gunner in a Lancaster Bomber and a flight crew of six others were killed in action on the night of 10/11th of August 1943, when the crew failed to return from a bombing mission over Nuremburg Germany.

This evening there was no matching German Luftwaffe Night Fighter claims for the loss of an aircraft over Nuremberg, so it was most likely the crew lost their lives to an anti-aircraft flak unit around Nuremberg.

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