LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant John Walter BENN
Service No: 404881
Born: Cambooya QLD, 13 July 1910
Enlisted in the RAAF: 6 December 1940
Unit: No. 207 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Bottesford
Died: Air Operations: (No. 207 Squadron Lancaster aircraft R5760), North West Europe, 12 August 1942, Aged 32 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Frederick Ford Benn and Eleanor Benn, of Wynnum, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Dalby QLD
Remembered: Panel 112, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 118, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2240 hours on 12 August 1942 Lancaster R5760 took off from Bottesford to carry out a bombing raid on Mainz, Germany. On the mission 10 tenths cloud from 6,000 to 10,000 feet was encountered. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Following post war enquiries and investigations, it was recorded in 1949 that the missing crew members had no known graves.
The crew members of R5760 were:
Sergeant John Walter Benn (404881) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Thomas Fitzpatrick (1113188) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Warrant Officer David Wyndham Fry (905553) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Henry Alfred Leslie Green (548497) (RAF) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Ronald William Edward Holmes (629489) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Philip Reginald Kenny (1121314) (RAFVR) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Stanley Obard (646412) (RAF) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
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, 163/91/371