LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Gordon Lewis JOHN
Service No: 400505
Born: Swan Hill VIC, 14 October 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 14 September 1940
Unit: No. 7 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Oakington
Died: Air Operations: (No. 7 Squadron Stirling aircraft W7629), Germany, 7 September 1942, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Lewis Melville John and Margaret Lyle John, of Burwood, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Camberwell VIC
Remembered: Panel 124, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 0110 hours on the morning of7 September 1942 Stirling W7629 took off from Oakington to bomb Duisberg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. Post war it was established that the aircraft crashed on the Baaler Bruch, some 6 kms
South south west of Goch, and all the crew members had been killed.
The crew members of W7629 were:
Pilot Officer Henry William Aldridge (128049) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant Neville Arthur Bennitt DFC (100634) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Gordon Lewis John (400505) (Observer)
Sergeant Cornelius Johannes Dupreez DFM (777663) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Ronald Sawyer (563012) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Lieutenant Jack Menzies Smith DFM (403040) (RNZAF) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Noel Spalding (1264305) (RAFVR) (Front Gunner)
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, 163/39/69