LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant William George HAWES
Service No: 402504
Born: Adelong NSW, 8 March 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 16 September 1940
Unit: No. 207 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Bottesford
Died: Air Operations: (No. 207 Squadron Lancaster aircraft R5632), North Sea, 24 July 1942, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Herbert Hollingworth Hawes, and of Sarah Annie Margaret Hawes, of Cootamundra, New South Wales, Australia. Hawkesbury Diploma of Dairying.
Roll of Honour: Cootamundra NSW
Remembered: Panel 111, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 123, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cootamundra War Memorial, Cootamundra NSW
At 0045 hours on 24 July 1942 Lancaster R5632 took off from Bottesford to attack Duisberg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off, and it did not return to base. Following post war enquiries and investigations, it was established that the remains of one crew were washed ashore at Ijmuiden on the west coast of the Netherlands, 6 miles north west of Haarlem. In 1948 it was recorded that the other six missing crew member had lost the lives at sea.
The crew members of R5632 were:
Flight Sergeant Timothy Clayton Blair (R/75117) (RCAF) Remains Recovered
Sergeant Eric Cartwright (1208967) (RAFVR)
Flight Sergeant John Charles Chiasson (R/65313) (RCAF)
Sergeant Harold Frank Clarke (1183538) (RAFVR)
Flight Sergeant William George Hawes (402504) (Pilot)
Sergeant Percival James Hooper (404366) (RNZAF)
Sergeant William Robert Smith (1307055) (RAFVR)
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, 163/120/513
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line