LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer John Edward COATES
Service No: 404956
Born: Rockhampton QLD, 10 February 1912
Enlisted in the RAAF: 5 January 1941
Unit: No. 106 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Coningsby
Died: Air Operations: (No. 106 Squadron Lancaster aircraft R5678), Germany, 16 August 1942, Aged 30 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John Traherne Coates and Ann Eliza Coates, husband of Noemi Victoria Coates, of Clayfield, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Rockhampton QLD
Remembered: Panel 120, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 0020 hours on the morning of 16 August 1942 Lancaster R5678 took off from Coningsby detailed to bomb Dusseldorf. Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed at 0325 hours at Dusseldorf-Oberkassel and all the crew members were killed.
The crew members of R5678 were:
Flying Officer John Edward Coates (404956) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant James Daniel O’Leary Cooney (R/54828) (RCAF) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant John Dundas Dickie (1551589) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Charles Albert Holmes (1168170) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Andrew Maxwell (114132) (RAFVR) (Observer)
Sergeant Thomas Allen Reid (981682) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Stanley Topham (1079014) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant John Arthur Williams (550452) (RAF) (Wireless 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, 163/26/257