LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Lionel James COLGAN
Service No: 413075
Born: Glebe NSW, 3 May 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 15 August 1941
Unit: No. 464 Squadron
Died: Air Operations (No. 464 Squadron Mosquito aircraft HP934), Netherlands, 27 November 1944, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Amersfoort (Oud Leusden) General Cemetery, Utrecht, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Percy Claude and Essie Noel Colgan, of North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 109, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Mosquito HP934 took off from RAF Thorney Island at 1959 hours on the night of 27 November 1944, being part of a squadron formation of 17 aircraft detailed to carry out night intruder operations and bomb and strafe road and rail junctions and the towns of Unna, Vieren and Cloppenburg, Germany. HP934 failed to return from the mission.
The crew members of HP934 were:
Flying Officer Lionel James Colgan (413075) (Pilot)
Flying Officer Ross Arthur Stoner (417901) (Navigator) Safe, Discharged from the RAAF: 24 September 1945
Flying Officer Stoner returned safe to London on 24 March 1945 having been hidden by the Dutch underground movement. He reported “On 27 November 1944 we were on an intruder patrol over
the area Arnhem-Aachen-Cologne-Emmerich. Crossing at Egmond at 2000 feet 20mm guns opened up. The pilot thought we had been hit but neither the aircraft nor the instruments gave any indication. Six minutes later over Ijssel Mer two explosions occurred. Looking back I saw fire in the after hatch of the aircraft. At the same time the controls went. The Pilot ordered bale out. The emergency hatch jammed but I kicked and pushed it open. The aircraft was losing height rapidly, but the Pilot managed to stagger it up to 1500 feet before I baled out. Landed in a patch of young trees. Before I could get out of the harness four young Dutchmen approached me. One spoke English. He said he could hide me from the Germans who were only a few kms away. Two of the boys went to look for the Pilot and I was taken to a farm. A doctor came within half an hour and fixed up a deep gash in my head. A special hide out was made for me in a barn outside a house where 26 evacuees were living. On 29 November the Germans arrived and searched the house but somebody had put diphtheria on one room so the Germans quickly left. On 8 December taken in hand by the Dutch underground and journey arranged for me.”
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, 166/8/754
Bibliography:
Lax, M. (Mark) and Leon Kane-Maguire The Gestapo Hunters: 464 Squadron RAAF 1942-5, Banner Books Maryborough QLD 4650, 1999
Vincent, D. (David) Mosquito Monograph: A history of Mosquitoes in Australia and RAAF operations, David Vincent Highbury SA 5089, 1982