Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Athol Grant Webber was the son of William and May Webber. He was born in the small village of Kendall, on the north coast of New South Wales, in 1924. 

Athol took the decision to be a School Teacher while he was attending Maitland Boys High School. For he liked school. Hence he thought he could make a difference in that vocation.

He was at Armidale Teachers College in New South Wales when he volunteered for RAAF Aircrew. Athol was 18 years old when he enlisted in Jan 1943. He had put his vocation on hold in order to do his bit for the war effort.

He was trained under the Empire Air Training Scheme as both a Wireless Operator and an Air Gunner. Athol did his Bomber Command Operational Training in the U.K.

In mid 1944 he was posted to No. 115 RAF Squadron.

He commenced Bomber Command Ops in an RAF Avro Lancaster, a few days after the epic D Day landings in 1944. Bomber Command had been repurposed to support D Day Ops and the Normandy Campaign at that time. Athol flew his first combat mission over occupied France as an Avro Lancaster Air Gunner.    

He final and fatal mission was to destroy Kriegsmarine U Boat Facilities at Kiel on the Baltic coast of Germany.

RAF Lancaster I HK-556 4A-F departed from RAF Base Witchford near Cambridge at 20:19 Hours on 26th August 1944. This was the day after Paris was Liberated. It was a Saturday evening when he could have been at the pub if he was not rostered for duty.

Instead, Athol was one of two RAAF Air Gunners in RAF Lancaster HK-556. They were both 19 years old.

Their RNZAF Pilot was aged 22 years and four RAFVR crewmates made up the seven man HK-556 crew. The Navigator, Flight Engineer, Bomb Aimer and Wireless Operator were RAFVR. These men were 21 years old.  

The Kiel Raid Bomber stream consisted of 372 Avro Lancasters escorted by 10 De Havillan Mosquitos. The later were pathfinders. Their task was to illuminate the target area before the main force commenced their bombing runs.     

HK-556 was one of 17 Avro Lancasters that failed to return from that raid. The Avro Lancaster loss rate for that raid was 4.6 percent. The fate of HK-556 is unknown. 

Aircrew Remembered webpage cited states that there were no confirmed enemy reports or claims regarding HK-556.

There is an enemy report that an RAF Lancaster crashed with a full bomb load in the Brodersdorf Forrest near Keil. However, it is believed that it was LM230 from No. 12 Sqn RAF. Those unidentified remains were buried in Kiel Cemetry.   

Athol and his crewmates were posted MIA believed KIA on 27 August 1944. Death was presumed for official purposes to have occurred on that date. 

Athol and his comrades are commemorated on the Royal Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede. This memorial commemorates fallen Airmen without a known grave.  

He is also commemorated on Armidale Teachers College WWII Honour Roll. For Athol was studying at Armidale Teachers College when he voluntarily enlisted to serve his King and Country as an RAAF Airman.   

The RAAF lost more than four thousand Airmen in RAF Bomber Command in WWII. That includes RAF Bomber Command Training Units. 

AWM Roll of Honour cite Bomber Command RAAF Death Toll as 4,149 Airmen.      

The two RAAF Air Gunners in RAF Lancaster HK-556, are but two of those 4,149 fallen Bomber Command RAAF Airmen included in the AWM Roll of Honour. 

FSGT Athol Grant Webber RAAF and his good mate FSGT Allen Stewart Jackson RAAF were presumed KIA.

These two Avro Lancaster "Bomber Boys" were only nineteen. 

Lest We Forget.