LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Henry Holmes CHAPMAN
Service No: 425488
Born: Toowoomba QLD, 12 April 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 28 March 1942
Unit: No. 58 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Stornoway
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 58 Squadron Halifax HX158), near Stornoway, 16 October 1944, Aged 28 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Thomas Henry and Emily Louisa Charlotte Chapman, of Hampton, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Toowoomba QLD
Remembered: Panel 258, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 120, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1910 hours on 16 October 1944 Halifax HX158 took off from Stornoway on a night training flare dropping non-operational exercise in an area 5910N and 00610W. When seen in the area at 2030 hours it was exercising normally. Radar plots showed the aircraft approaching the airfield from the north and passing over the airfield at 2/3000 feet. At 2113 hours when the aircraft was
18 miles south of the airfield, the radar plot suddenly faded. A naval vessel reported an aircraft had crashed into the sea about 10 miles south east of Shiant Island towards the Isle of Skye. The vessel proceeded immediately to the spot and located the wreckage. Searches the next day recovered the body of Flight Lieutenant Young and further wreckage, but no trace of the rest of the crew members.
The crew members of HX158 were:
Sergeant Derrick Thomas Bax (1867832) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Henry Holmes Chapman (425488) (Navigator)
Warrant Officer Douglas James Edmiston (416420) (RNZAF) (Wireless Operator/Air)
Flight Sergeant Anthony Guiscard Harbottle (926870) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/Air)
First Lieutenant C D Hendrickson (USAAF) (Second Pilot)
Pilot Officer William Jones (186209) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/Air)
Flight Sergeant Frederick Mockridge (1431930) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/Air)
Flight Lieutenant Clive Desmond Young (172247) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
First Lieutenant Hendrickson had previously been rescued following the loss of Halifax JP296 on 21 August 1944 in which Flight Sergeant Roy Vincent Boyd (421786) was killed.
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, 166/7/670