LEST WE FORGET
Flight Lieutenant Francis William HORDERN
Service No: 1112
Born: Lidcombe NSW, 25 January 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 December 1939
Unit: No. 21 Squadron
Died: Air Raid, Malaya, 18 December 1941, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Mary Elizabeth Hordern; nephew of Mrs. E. M. Jesson, of Amcliffe, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Arncliffe NSW
Remembered: Column 411, Singapore Memorial, Singapore
Remembered: Panel 101, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Immediately the raid warning was received on 18 December 1941, 6 Buffaloes took off, failed to intercept the enemy, and returned and landed. Two of the aircraft were still making their final taxi run when 15 bombers attacked. Both aircraft were caught in the bomb line and destroyed though both pilots had time to leap from their cockpits and tumble into slit trenches and safety. The squadron equipment officer, Flight Lieutenant Hordern, was mortally wounded when a bomb burst beside a motor-car in which he had just driven on to the airfield.
Extract from Gillison, D.N. (Douglas Napier) (254475) Royal Australian Air Force 1939-1942, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1962 – Page 278
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/36/132