LEST WE FORGET

Warrant Officer Charles Benjamin MANNING

Service No: 420695
Born: Willoughby NSW, 29 November 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 9 November 1941
Unit: No. 172 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Chivenor
Died: Air Operations: (No. 172 Squadron Wellington aircraft NB805), English Channel area, 27 June 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of James and Sarah Manning, of Artarmon, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Artarmon NSW
Remembered: Panel 259, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 126, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT

At 2122 hours on 26 June 1944 Wellington NB805took off from Chivenor to carry out an operational sortie in the area 15 miles either side of the line from the Scillies to Brest. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Following post war enquiries and investigations, it was recorded in 1949 that the missing crew members had lost their lives at sea.

The crew members of NB805 were:

Flight Sergeant Jeffrey William Green (1382730) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air)
Flight Sergeant Malcolm Lewin (1390683) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Isaac George Long (1382983) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air)
Warrant Officer Charles Benjamin Manning (402695) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Squadron Leader Ronald Harrison Thompson (39190) (RAF) (Pilot)
Sergeant Robert Stephen Dan Wharton (1576333) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air)

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, 166/27/487

Book Now Book Now