LEST WE FORGET
Warrant Officer Victor Archibald Maudsley HEDGES DFC
Service No: 24163
Born: Charters Towers QLD, 9 October 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 31 May 1940
Unit: No. 156 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Warboys
Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), 15 February 1944
Died: Air Operations: (No. 156 Squadron Lancaster aircraft JB483), Germany, 14 January 1944, Aged 29 Years
Buried: Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William Richard and Alice Ruby Hedges, of Bowen, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Homestead QLD
Remembered: Panel 123, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
The Citation for the DFC awarded to Warrant Officer Hedges is a General Citation promulgated in the London Gazette on 15 February 1944, page 795. W R Chorley states that “Warrant Officer Hedges a regular airman was one of only a few Australian Flight Engineers flying in Bomb Command and that his award of DFC must, therefore, almost be unique.”
At 1647 hours on the night of 14 January 1944 Lancaster JB483 took off from Warboys detailed to bomb Brunswick, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft was lost and all the crew members were killed.
The crew members of JB483 were:
Sergeant Noel Reginald James Evans (1393145) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Warrant Officer Victor Archibald Maudsley Hedges DFC (24163) (Flight Engineer)
Warrant Officer II Herbert Helmer Kinghorn (R/126655) (RCAF) (Navigator)
Sergeant Kenneth Lewis Johnson (957399) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flying Officer George Palmer (155490) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Edward Douglas Panniers (1314367) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Robert Charles Strange (425242) (Rear Gunner)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Chorley W R, Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 5 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1944, Midland Counties Publications UK, 1997
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/17/440