LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Raymond Wesley FAULKS
Service No: 439842
Born: Cootamundra NSW, 17 March 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 9 August 1943
Unit: No. 1652 Conversion Unit (RAF), RAF Station Marston Moor
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1652 Conversion Unit Halifax aircraft NA193), North Sea, 5 April 1945, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Wick Cemetery, Caithness-shire, Scotland
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William Francis Wesley Faulks and Margaret Louisa Faulks, of Junee, New South Wales, Australia; husband of Mavis Faulks, of Tumut, New South Wales
Roll of Honour: Cootamundra NSW
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Wallendbeen Memorial Obelisk, Wallendbeen NSW
Remembered: Cootamundra War Memorial, Cootamundra NSW
At 2225 hours on 4 April 1945 Halifax NA193 took off Marston Moor on a non-operational night training exercise “Bullseye” to Scapa Flow. The aircraft was due back at 0305 hours on 5 April but it did not return to base. Air sea rescue launches located large amounts of small pieces of wreckage on the surface of the water and it was assumed that the aircraft crashed at high speed out of control, and struck the water with considerable force. It was impossible to ascertain the cause. Two bodies were recovered along with parts of NA193, but the main portion of the aircraft was on the sea bottom. In 1949 it was recorded that the remainder of the crew had lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of NA193 were:
Sergeant Arthur Card (1898171) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Leonard Alexander Cooke (1813019) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) Remains recovered
Flight Sergeant John Neal Donald (434967) (Bomb Aimer)
Flight Sergeant Raymond Wesley Faulks (439842) (Air Gunner) Remains recovered
Flight Sergeant Clarence Frederick Ford (432779) (Wireless Operator)
Flight Sergeant John Childe Hughes (433107) (Navigator)
Sergeant William James Robert Semple (1811719) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Pilot Officer Norman William Neville Tanner (432034) (Pilot)
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, 166/13/444
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line