LEST WE FORGET
Warrant Officer Albert Horace HAKE MID
Service No: 403218
Born: Sydney NSW, 30 June 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 4 January 1941
Unit: No. 72 Squadron (RAF)
Awarded the Mentioned in Despatches (MID)
Died: Prisoner of War (Executed) Germany, 31 March 1944, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery, Poland
CWGC Additional Information: Son of George and Lillian Maud Hake, of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; husband of Noela Aundree Lillian Hake, of Carlton, New South Wales
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 123, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Warrant Officer Hake became a Prisoner of War when Spitfire Vb AB258 was shot down near St Omer, France, while conducting a Circus 119 on 4 April 1942.
On 24/25 March 1944, 76 allied prisoners of war broke out of the Stalag Luft III Prison Camp near Sagan, Germany (now Zagan, Poland) (the Great Escape). All but three were recaptured and of those, 50 including six Australians were executed by the Gestapo. Those six Australians executed were:
Squadron Leader James Catanach DFC MID (400364) (No. 455 Squadron) Executed 29 March 1944
Flight Lieutenant Brian Herbert Evans MID (42745) (RAF) (No. 49 Squadron (RAF)) Executed 31 March 1944
Warrant Officer Albert Horace Hake MID (403218) (No. 72 Squadron (RAF)) Executed 31 March 1944
Flight Lieutenant Thomas Barker Leigh (46462) (RAF) (No. 76 Squadron (RAF)) Executed 31 March 1944
Flight Lieutenant Reginald Victor Kierath MID (402364) (No. 450 Squadron) Executed 29 March 1944
Squadron Leader John Edwin Ashley Williams DFC (40652) (RAF) (No. 450 Squadron (RAAF)) Executed 29 March 1944
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
Franks, Norman L R Royal Air Force Fighter Command Losses of the Second World war Volume 2 Operational Losses: Aircraft and Crews 1942-1943, Midland Publishing Leicester UK, 1998
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A9301, 413218
Bibliography:
Ilbery, P.L.T. (Peter Leslie Thomas) (422957) Hatching an Air Force: 2SFTS, 5SFTS, 1BFTS Uranquinty and Wagga Wagga, Banner Books Maryborough QLD 4650, 2002