LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Ivan William BANKS
Service No: 405803
Born: Perth WA, 21 October 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 June 1941 (at Brisbane QLD)
Unit: No. 101 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Ludford Magna
Died: Air Operations: (No. 101 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ED373), off the Dutch Coast, 26 June 1943, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Amsterdam New Eastern Cemetery, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William Henry and Alice Banks, of South Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Toowoomba QLD
Remembered: Panel 118, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Lancaster ED373 took off from Ludford Magna on the night of 25/26 June 1943 detailed to bomb Gelsenkirchen, 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 crashed into the sea off the Dutch coast,
but close to shore near Zandvoort. All the crew baled out but only Sergeant Brook who was the first to leave was carried on shore by the wind and he became a Prisoner of War. The bodies of five crew members were washed ashore and Sergeant Pugh is unrecovered.
The crew members of ED373 were:
Flight Sergeant Ivan William Banks (405083) (Pilot)
Sergeant Geoffrey Victor Branson (1607031) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant T G Brook (658112) (RAF) (Air Bomber) PoW
Sergeant Norman Stanley Mould (1297129) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Ronald Pugh (1317561) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant John Henry William Snowdon (1037458) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Harold James Toze (1218772) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
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, 166/5/202