LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Valentine Ernest Michael HENRY
Service No: 404245
Born: Bullfinch WA, 8 June 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 19 July 1940 (at Brisbane QLD)
Unit: No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: Bombing Technique (No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit Spitfire aircraft AB119), off the French Coast, 18 April 1942, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Perros-Guirec Communal Cemetery, Cotes-d’Ármor, France
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Michael Laurence and Evangeline Henry, of Palmwoods, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Woombye QLD
Remembered: Panel 123, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 18 April 1942, Spitfire AB119 took off on a photo reconnaissance operational flight from RAF Station St Eval but failed to return to base. It was presumed that the aircraft had crashed into the sea as Sergeant Henry’s body was washed ashore at Ploumanach on the Triagos Islands, a group of uninhabited rocks off the north coast of Brittany, France.
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, 163/121/159