LEST WE FORGET

Flight Sergeant Bertram John JONES

Service No: 424299
Born: Paddington NSW, 23 December 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 17 August 1942
Unit: No. 17 Operational Training Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 17 Operational Training Unit Wellington aircraft HE688), Yorkshire, 23 March 1944, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Harrogate (Stonefall), Cemetery, Yorkshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Walter Sidney and Jessie Ivy Jones, of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; husband of Olive Rosalie Jones, of Kensington, New South Wales
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 124, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT

At 1915 hours on 23 March 1944, Wellington HE688 took off from Silverstone for an evening cross country training exercise. The Pilot lost control due to the port engine failing, and while trying to arrest the steep dive, the aircraft broke up at 2105 hours and crashed almost vertically to the east of Little Beach Hill near Ellerback, about four miles east north east of Northallerton, Yorkshire. All the crew members were killed.

The crew members of HE688 were:

Flight Sergeant Bertram John Jones (424299) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Ernest Percy Moore (1586101) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Dennis Gwylin Stephens (3011102) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Edward Nigel Jeffreys Thomson (416552) (RNZAF) (Pilot)
Warrant Officer David Lancaster Watson (430076) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Benjamin Woodhead (1685947) (RAFVR) (Air 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, 166/21/132

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