LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Harry HALE
Service No: 415944
Born: Cottesloe WA, 4 November 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 22 April 1942
Unit: No. 625 Squadron (RAF), RAF Kelstern, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 625 Squadron Lancaster aircraft JB743), France, 1 July 1944, Aged 22 Years
Buried: St. Pierre-de-Jardes Communal Cemetery, France
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Harry and Freda Rose Hale, of Cottesloe, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Perth WA
Remembered: Panel 123, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
On the night of 30 June 1944, Lancaster JB743 took off from RAF Kelstern at 2221 hours, detailed to bomb railway yards and with ABC responsibility (Air Borne Cigar – jamming transmitter carried by Lancasters to monitor and jam German night fighters using Lichtenstein radar) at Vierson, France. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed near Sr-Pierre-de-Jards (Indre) 14 kms east north east of Vatan. All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of JB743 were:
Sergeant Frank Norman Allen (643123) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Frank Dickinson (1034670) (RAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant John Michael Fraser (R/192431) (RCAF) (Rear Gunner)
Pilot Officer Harry Hale (415944) (Pilot)
Flying Officer John Alexander McHutchion (J/26645) (RCAF) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Clarence Orville McMillan (R/142111) (RCAF) (Air Bomber)
Pilot Officer John Michael Stecyk (J/92037) (RCAF) (Mid Upper 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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/17/658
Bibliography:
Silbert, E. (Eric) Dinkum Mishpochah, Artlook Books Hay Street East WA, 1981