LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Louis James HAMMOND
Service No: 400255
Born: Tottenham, England, 17 March 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 21 July 1940 (at Melbourne VIC)
Unit: No. 51 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Snaith
Died: Air Operations: (No. 51 Squadron Halifax aircraft DT721), Netherlands, 27 January 1943, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William James and Violet Hammond, of Preston, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Preston VIC
Remembered: Panel 123, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1750 hours on the night of 27 January 1943 Halifax DT721 took off from Snaith detailed to bomb Dusseldorf, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft was shot down by a night fighter and it crashed in the grounds on Huize Padua Mental Hospital between Boeken and Groesbeek (Noord-Brabant), Netherlands. Three crew members were killed and the four other crew taken prisoner.
The crew members of DT721 were:
Sergeant P A Best (1383778) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot) PoW
Sergeant John Alexander Daragon (1321773) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Flight Sergeant Louis James Hammond (400255) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant R Hough (539721) (RAF) (Flight Engineer) POW
Pilot Officer E V J Purnell (136323) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner) PoW
Sergeant C Street (1043990) (RAFVR) (Navigator) PoW
Warrant Officer I Lawrence O’Neill Weakley (R/67735) (RCAF) (Pilot)
Sergeant Hough later reported that Flight Sergeant Hammond was killed when the night fighter attacked and that he was still in the aircraft when it crashed, 11 miles south west of Eindenhoven, Netherlands.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/17/27