LEST WE FORGET

Flight Sergeant John Kennedy CULLEN

Service No: 404779
Born: Toowoomba QLD, 9 May 1910
Enlisted in the RAAF: 8 November 1940
Unit: No. 49 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Scampton
Died: Air Operations: (No. 49 Squadron Lancaster aircraft W4116), North West Europe, 12 October 1942, Aged 32 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Archibald Kennedy Cullen and Maude Cullen, of Taroom, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Toowoomba QLD
Remembered: Panel 111, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 121, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT

At 1745 hours on the night of 12 October 1942 Lancaster W4116 took off from Scampton detailed to attack a target at Wismar, Germany. Nothing further was heard from the aircraft or of the crew after take-off. In a 1949 report by the Missing Research and Enquiry Unit it stated that searches failed to reveal any trace of the aircraft or crew. The crew members were recorded as missing with no known graves.

The crew members of W4116 were:

Sergeant John Kennedy Cullen (404779) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Richard Frederick Elliott (103519) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Alexander Rae Hendrie (98168) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Gordon Hodge (1334463) (RAFVR)
Flying Officer John William Beresford Horne (104332) (RAFVR)
Pilot Officer Graeme Lonarch Laidlaw (400890) (Observer)
Sergeant William Charles Henry Ross (404642) (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, 163/99/120

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