LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Brinley Pearce JAY
Service No: 403745
Born: Lidcombe NSW, 12 May 1919
Enlisted in the RAAF: 3 March 1941
Unit: No. 158 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Lissett
Died: Air Operations: (No. 158 Squadron Halifax aircraft HR758), Germany, 17 April 1943, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Albin Henry and Rhoda Annie Jay; husband of Agnes Freda Gilmour Jay, of Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 124, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2032 hours on the night of 16 April 1943 Halifax HR758 took off from Lissett detailed to bomb Plzen, Czechoslovakia. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed near Saarbrucken. Two crew members were killed and the other five became Prisoners of War.
The crew members of HR758 were:
Pilot Officer Kenneth Alan Barrett (123848) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant C D Fawcett (R/115932) (RCAF) (Rear Gunner) PoW
Sergeant A Ford (1379992) (RAF) (Wireless Air Gunner) PoW
Sergeant F E Holmes (1262524) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) PoW
Flying Officer Brinley Pearce Jay (403745) (Pilot)
Sergeant R Newdick (1382016) (RAFVR) (Mid Gunner) PoW
Sergeant G D W Scholes (1234186) (RAFVR) (Navigator) PoW
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, 166/20/32
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line