LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer James Wallace HOCKING
Service No: 429321
Born: Nambour QLD, 12 December 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 September 1942
Unit: No. 1651 Conversion Unit (RAF), RAF Station Wratting Common (No. 31 Base Unit)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1651 Conversion Unit Stirling aircraft LJ451), Cambridgeshire, 28 July 1944, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Cambridge City Cemetery, Cambridgeshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William and Evangeline Susan Hocking, of Nambour, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Nambour QLD
Remembered: Panel 124, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2337 hours on the night of 27 July 1944, Stirling LJ451 took off from Wratting Common detailed to carry out a special navigation radar cross country exercise. At 0002 hours the aircraft crashed one mile south west of March, Cambridgeshire, and the Pilot was killed. All the other crew members baled out successfully, and were either uninjured or were slightly injured. According to a 31 Base report, flames were seen coming from the starboard inner as the bomber flew at 7,500 feet over East Anglia, and within seconds the remaining engines appeared to fail and the aircraft crashed at 0002 hours near a Royal Observer Corps post at Benwick, near March. Flying Officer Hocking was found in the wreck of the aircraft.
The crew members of LJ451 were:
Sergeant H W Benson (531520) (RAF) (Mid Upper Gunner) Injured
Sergeant H V Brooker (1595054) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner) Injured
Pilot Officer James Wallace Hocking (429321) (Pilot) Fatally injured, Died 28 July 1944
Sergeant D E Johnson (1819246) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) Injured
Sergeant McFarlane (1568456) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Stanley Roy Tebbutt (434047) (Wireless Operator Air) Discharged from the RAAF: 14 September 1945
Sergeant B Thorgrimson (R/180169) (RCAF) (Air Bomber)
The Mid Upper Gunner later stated: “The take-off appeared quite normal and the Pilot set course for Darlington when over base at 2,000 feet. Twenty five minutes after the Pilot asked the Flight Engineer to check the starboard inner. At the same time I reported that the starboard inner was on fire. The Captain informed the Flight Engineer he was going to feather the engine and return to base. I then said that the airscrews were still windmilling, and the Captain ordered the crew to stand by and put on parachutes. I helped the Captain to put on his parachute, and then the aircraft shuddered violently and the Captain ordered the crew to abandon the aircraft. I went forward to open the front escape hatch which I did, and then went back to the Captain to see if he was coming. The Captain was half way out of his seat and he ordered me to leave the aircraft, and he would follow. As the I left the aircraft the nose appeared slightly down, and the aircraft seemed to crash as soon as my parachute opened.”
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, 166/18/419