Public Contributions:

Walter was killed in a plane crash just north of what is now Leighton Hospital on the north side of Crewe, England. The aircraft was a Wellington 1C reg. no. R1298 of 18th Operational Training Unit, ...RAF Bramcote near Nuneaton. It was on a cross country navigation exercise. Officially it ran into barrage balloon cables whilst off course in poor weather and crashed at 12:50. At that time Crewe was a vital war production town, it had the masssive LMS rail works which produced tanks as well as railway equipment and the new (then) Rolls Royce aero engine factory which was turning out the famous Merlin engines vital to the RAF. These factories were surrounded by barrage balloons designed to stop low level air attacks. At least 3 other RAF aircraft hit these balloons and crashed. The other members of this crew were: Flying Officer D Warburton (RAF) Sgt VC Hill (RAF) Sgt BT Abbott (RAF) Flying Officer A Minkiewiscz (Free Polish Air force) Sgt Z Perkowski (FPAF) Sgt L Jachna (FPAF) Sgt J Orynek (FPAF) Sgt SJ Wojciechowski (FPAF) Leading Aircraftman HR Kwiatkowski (FPAF) Apologies to Polish readers if the spellings are wrong, records are not good. The plane was overcrewed as part of the training and this was one of the worst training losses suffered by the RAF. The crash was witnessed by 2 police constables, Frank Wiggins and Ernest Pocock who attempted to rescue them despite the fire and exploding ammunition but the entire crew was dead when they reached them, Frank and Ernest were awarded the Britsih Empire Medal for their efforts. The 3 English crew were returned to their families for burial, Walter and his Polish colleagues are buried in Nuneaton in a well kept war grave area of the cemetary. Read More

The Aircrew Remembrance Society in the UK would like to make contact with any relatives of Walter Lionel Gosden and inform them that the ARS have arranged for a small plaque to be laid at the local c...hurch to remember Walter and his crew. Please contact the webmaster Kelvin Youngs www.aircrewremembrancesociety.com and he will provide details and photos of the memorial plaque. Read More

Walter was the eldest son and my grandparents had six children the last child a daughter They had the extremely difficult task of sending five sons to fight for their country with Walter never return...ing, and my Grandfather dying a few days after receiving the news of my Uncle's death. I never met my Uncle or Grandfather as my parents married in 1943. Read More

39859 Walter Lionel Gosden. Born in Christchurch 12th June 1916 Secondary Education at Wellington Technical College. Employed on leaving school in a number of capacities but from 1935 until applying ...for enlistment in aircrew, on Sept 1939, he was employed by the Railway Department at Mataroa. Sergeant Gosden was enlisted at Ohakea on the 24th October 1939 and trained as an air gunner being awarded the Air Gunners Badge before embarking on the 17th February 1940 for the United Kingdom. He arrived at No 1 Depot Uxbridge on the 9th of April, and was posted to No 75 NZ.Squadron at Feltwell, Norfolk, for operational flying. During this period he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant on 27th May 1940. Sergeant Gosden was posted to No.18 Operational Training Unit Bramcote, Warwickshire on the 31st January 1941. He was a member of the crew of a Wellington aircraft engaged in a non operational flight on the 4th of February 1942. The flight crashed near Middlewick, Cheshire, after striking a balloon cable. All the crew lost their lives. Sergeant Gosden was buried in the Nuneaton Cemetery, Warwickshire. Log Book No 5/2/2325 AS2. Read More