LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Thomas Kenneth CLARKE
Service No: 421979
Born: Broadwater NSW, 20 December 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 24 April 1942
Unit: No. 50 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Skellingthorpe
Died: Air Operations (No. 50 Squadron Lancaster aircraft LM222), Germany, 30 August 1944, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of George William Clarke, and of Dorothy Clarke, of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Newcastle NSW
Remembered: Panel 257, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 120, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2026 hours on 29 August 1944 Lancaster LM222 took off from Skellingthorpe detailed to attack Koenigsberg in East Prussia. No further information was received from the aircraft which failed to return to base. In 1949, it was reported that from information extracted from German documents that LM 222 crashed on 30 August 1944, in the vicinity of Gut Tarpienen, approximately 12 miles north east of Neuhausen near Konigsberg, East Prussia. The report further states that the remains of one RAF member of the crew, together with one unknown were interred in the New Cemetery, Neuhausen. Owing to circumstances outside British control, it was not possible to visit the scene of the crash for the purpose of obtaining details of the burial place of crew members, as at the time East Prussia was part of Soviet occupied territory. All crew members were recorded as having no known grave.
The crew members of LM222 were:
Sergeant James Patrick Cassin (1523882) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flying Officer Thomas Kenneth Clarke (421979) (Pilot)
Sergeant Frank William Flude (902602) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Frank George Harris (1806356) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer Gordon Lawrence (153629) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flying Officer Andrew Glassford MacLean (153582) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer)
Flight Sergeant Glyn Thomas (1226085) (RAFVR) (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, 166/7/621