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Bell-Towers, Wadya Wellesley

Grave number 30
Rank Pilot Officer Nr. 400010 R.A.A.F.
Squadron 102 Squadron, RAF Station Topcliffe
Date of birth / age August 17, 1908 / 32 years
Reported missing August 15, 1941
Aircraft type Whitley V, Z-6829
Washed ashore August 16, 1941, crashed on the Boschplaat
Buried August 19, 1941
Father Henry Linacre Bell-Towers
Mother Isabel Marion Bell-Towers
Partner Merla Bell-Towers
Place of residence Hawtorn, Melbourne, Australië
   
Details

Aircraft shot down.
4 Difficult to identify bodies recovered.
The bodies were buried simultaneously in graves 30, 31, 32A and 32B.

At 10:18 o.m. on the night of August 14, 1941, the Whitley Z6829 took off from Topcliffe, destined to carry out an attack on Hannover, Germany.
After take-off nothing more was heard from the aircraft and it did not return to base.
The aircraft was shot down by night fighter pilot Oberfeldwebel Paul Gildner and crashed into the Wadden Sea south of Terschelling at 04:48 a.m..
Four of the crew members were killed and two became prisoners of war.

De other crew members of the Z6829 were:
Flight Sergeant Louis Edward David Lindsay (grave 31)
Sergeant Gerald Keith Powell (grave 32A)
Sergeant Richard Thomas Philp (grave 32B)
Sergeant TA Vermiglio (POW Stalag 357)
Sergeant Frank Wallace Penn (POW Stalag Luft 3)

The following notes about graves 30, 31, and 32 were found in the notebook of the then mayor Reinders:

Mass grave 30-31-32, three coffins containing remains of 4 Eng. airmen, whose aircraft crashed on the Boschplaat.
Of the crew of 6, 1 was wounded and found immediately.
A second fled and was picked up the next day.
These two were transferred to Harlingen. Names unknown.

Below is the original note:




On February 8, 2010 a commemoration took place at the cemetery of honor on Terschelling.
The Australian ambassador Lydia Morton laid a letter at the grave of Bell-Towers, written by the son of the deceased pilot, Ian Bruce Bell-Towers.