LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant John Milton BOOTH
Service No: 420334
Born: Auburn NSW, 1 May 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 October 1941
Unit: No. 576 Squadron (RAF), RAF Elsham Wolds, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 576 Squadron Lancaster aircraft W4337), Germany, 3 December 1943, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfal, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Robert Herbert and Vivienne Eileen Booth; husband of Audrey Mavis Booth, of Leichhardt, New South Wales, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Concord War Memorial, Concord NSW
On the night of 2/3rd December 1943, Lancaster W4337 took off from Elsham Wolds at 1705 hours, detailed to bomb Berlin. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off, and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed in the vicinity of Monchengladbach, and all the crew members were killed.
The crew members of W4337 were:
Flight Sergeant John Milton Booth (420334) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Lloyd William Lewis Godfrey (418387) (Bomb Aimer)
Flight Sergeant Murray Noel Jennings (420836) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Maurice William Jones (417959) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant George Henry Kaye (1590013) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Robert Edward Duncan Richards (413254) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Douglas Richard Gordon Taskis (418584) (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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia on-Line Record A705, 166/6/351
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line