LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Noel Michael DAVIS
Service No: 412921
Born: Waratah NSW, 28 September 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 15 August 1941
Unit: No. 218 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Downham Market
Died: Air Operations: (No. 218 Squadron Stirling aircraft EF448), Germany, 28 August 1943, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles John and Ruth Kendrick Davis, of Waratah, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Newcastle NSW
Remembered: Panel 121, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2135 hours on the night of 27 August 1943 Stirling EF448 took off from Downham Market detailed to bomb Nurnberg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed at Munster-Maifeld, west of the Mosel, 13 kms south west of Mayen. Five of the crew members were killed and two taken prisoner.
The crew members of EF448 were:
Sergeant John Curson (15480055) (RAVR) (Air Bomber)
Flight Sergeant Noel Michael Davis (412921) (Pilot)
Sergeant Daniel Joseph Mullen (R/151170) (RCAF) (Navigator)
Sergeant Douglas Alexander Ross (R/176649) (RCAF) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant R H B Searle (1337702) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner) PoW
Sergeant George Louis Terry (1800644) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant James Kevin White (418035) (Air Gunner) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 11 January 1946
In a PoW report the then Warrant Officer White stated: “The Mid Upper Gunner was hit by flak and his turret put out of action. We were attacked by an ME210 which put the I/Com, Signal lights and my turret out of action. I registered hits on the enemy aircraft before he broke away and went into a vertical dive. The Skipper pulled our aircraft out of a very steep dive, and a few minutes later we were attacked from above by a JU88 which put the port inner engine on fire. The Navigator came down and signalled us to bale out. The last I saw of him, he was heading back up the fuselage through thick oily smoke. I baled out at approximately 5,000 feet as the aircraft went into a spin. The aircraft crashed north west of Koblenze. As I came down I could see the aircraft blazing on the ground. As far as I know all the others were in the aircraft when it went into a spin and I baled out. I made contact with the Sergeant Searle on the ground, who had baled out through the Astro dome. The Germans told me there were five bodies in the aircraft. I hid in the day and travelled by night. “I was sound asleep in a bush when I was discovered by farmers, only about 100 yards outside a village. I was captured near Koel.”
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 166/9/156
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line