RAAF Fairey Battle L5759

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Memorial Plaque

RSL (Port Pirie Sub Branch) Inc.

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On Thursday the 13th August 1942, at 1500 hours, a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Fairey Battle (L5759) from No. 2 Bombing and Gunnery School was on an afternoon training mission. Sergeant Reuben Maurice Plummer was the pilot of the aircraft which encountered difficulties and spiralled into the sea near Port Pirie. He was killed instantly with another crew member Leading Aircraftman Leslie Gaunt Price.

Killed were:

Sergeant Reuben Maurice Plummer 408754 - Pilot

Leading Aircraftman Leslie Gaunt Price 38217 - Gunner

The cause of the accident could not be determined and was listed as “obscure”.

Although the body of Leading Aircraftman Price was recovered, Sergeant Plummer’s body was never found. Dragging operations continued for a week after the accident but were abandoned when it was considered that there was no hope of finding the body. Sergeant Reuben Maurice Plummer was listed as missing, presumed dead.

In September 1983 after the discovery of a wing flap, complete with oil lines, a further search was conducted by about 30 divers concentrating on a section of the gulf near the entrance to Second Creek, just north of Port Pirie. The search was fruitless.

Leading Aircraftman Leslie Gaunt Price’s body was buried in the General section of the Port Pirie Cemetery with full military honours whilst Sergeant Reuben Maurice Plummer was commemorated on the Sydney War Cemetery Memorial to the Missing in Rookwood, NSW.

During RAAF Centenary celebrations on the 16th June 2001 the Port Pirie RSL Sub Branch remembered Reuben for his service and sacrifice by placing a memorial plaque on the cenotaph in the Port Pirie Garden of Memory War Cemetery as Port Pirie’s way of remembering Reuben.

Ms Judy Briedis, Reuben’s niece, unveiled the plaque of behalf of the Plummer family after a moving speech which included the quote “Tragically his body remains, to this day, lost in his own country without a known grave”.

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