LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant John Ross CHARLEY
Service No: 424912
Born: Summer Hill NSW, 20 May 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 9 October 1942
Unit: No. 78 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Breighton
Died: Air Operations (No. 78 Squadron Halifax aircraft MZ310), Netherlands, 6 October 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Bergen-Op-Zoom War Cemetery, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Herbert John and Eileen Marie Gray Charley, of Summer Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 120, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1432 hours on 6 October 1944 Halifax MZ310 took off from Breighton detailed to bomb Scholven-Buer. MZ310 collided in the air with Halifax LL588 also from No. 78 Squadron (RAF), both machines falling at Oude-Tonge (Zuid-Holland) on the island of Overflakken. The crew members in both the aircraft were killed.
The crew members of MZ310 were:
Sergeant John Brian Anderton (1685678) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant John Ross Charley (424912) (Wireless Operator Air)
Flight Sergeant Charles Roy Clement (1532013) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Flying Officer Charles Wallace Crawford (183801) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant John Divens (1822288) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Robert Heugh (1568930) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer Donald Stewart MacGregor (J/26671) (RCAF) (Second Pilot)
Sergeant Albert Reilly (1673687) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
The crew members of LL588 were:
Sergeant Guy Wilfred Habgood (1399598) (RAFVR)
Sergeant George Edward Kemp (1866112) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Harold Lockett (1593872) (RAFVR)
Sergeant John Allan McKillop (1361194) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Alan Moss (1115114) (RAFVR)
Flying Officer Raymond Louis Stanley (176376) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant George Henry Tilburn (1591010) (RAFVR)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Chorley W R, Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 5 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1944, Midland Counties Publications UK, 1997
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/7/659