Identity
Person No.
1702
Service No.
68871
Last Name
First Name
Hedley Crossman
Initials
H C
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Unknown
Age at Death
Unknown
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,780
Killed in action
Cause of Death
Killed in action. CORNWALL and her sister ship Dorsetshire were detached from the Fleet when they were sighted by Japanese aircraft. A little later they were overwhelmed by approximately 50 dive-bombers whose accurate attack sank both ships quickly; 190 of Cornwall's crew of 650 were lost
Military Service
Branch
Navy
Rank
Ordinary Seaman
Regiment
Unknown
Corps
Unit
Defence Force
UDF 24,808
Union Defence Force
Location
Country
Locality
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Coordinates
Notes
Husband of Mrs. D. Bestwetherick, of East London, Cape Province, South Africa.
Citations
Unknown
External References
- South African War Graves Project open source ↗
-
samilhistory.com
open source ↗
samilhistory.com Remembrance / Peter Dickens SAN WW2 honour roll
Stories 2
32 BN May 21 1980 Savate Angola cpl Andy falkus cpl engelbrecht capt Erasmus Lt patrick Capt C Muller (I think) This was a spec op in support of UNITA and the actual attack commenced at 09:21 Dean Shelley [dean@phoenix.idiscover.co.uk]
On 21 May, 32 Battalion were tasked to support a UNITA attack on the FAPLA base at Savate, Angola. Unknown to them, the FAPLA strength had been badly underestimated by UNITA and there was over 1000 heavily armed soldiers at Savate, rather than the 300 estimated. However, the assault went in as planned, and after a bloody day of fighting, Savate was captured and FAPLA routed with more than 550 dead and hundreds more wounded. Sadly, the battle cost 32 Battalion dearly, fifteen officers and men being killed in the fighting that day. Captain Charl de J. Muller was the 32 Battalion operations officer, and was acting as a company commander in the attack. He was reported missing by his company, and initial fears were that he had been captured by FAPLA. Sadly, this was not the case and his body was later found lying face down in one of the FAPLA trenches, having been shot in the head during the fierce fighting. Information extracted from 32 Battalion: The Inside Story of South Africa's Elite Fighting Unit ,
Dedications 1
"The ride to agadir" For the ashes of our fathers and the children of our sons RIP BEN WOLFF