LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant John Joseph NIXON
Service No: 405135
Born: Neutral Bay NSW, 8 March 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 2 February 1941 (at Brisbane QLD)
Unit: No. 50 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Skellingthorpe
Died: Air Operations: (No. 50 Squadron Manchester aircraft R5833), of the French Coast, 6 June 1942, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Cecil Horace and Annie Louisa Nixon, of Dee Why, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Roseville NSW
Remembered: Panel 113, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2225 hours on 5 June 1942 Manchester R5833 took off from Skellingthorpe detailed to carry out a gardening (mine-laying) operation in the Gorse area. The aircraft failed to return to base. The aircraft was shot down of the French Coast with six crew members killed and one taken prisoner.
The crew members of R5833 were:
Pilot Officer Desmond William Garland (115223) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer R T Gill (107931) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner) PoW
Sergeant William Gray (955478) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Sergeant Albert Moth (1268307) (RAFVR) (Observer)
Sergeant John Joseph Nixon (405135) (Second Pilot)
Sergeant Robert William Ogilvie (402670) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Sergeant Walter Roy West (1337262) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Gill later reported that “the aircraft was shot down on 6 June and crashed into the sea off the French coast near Lorient. It hit the water and I remember nothing until I came to the surface and find blazing petrol on the water. No one else was to be seen. The Germans told me there was only one survivor”. German documents stated that all were killed on 6 June, but the location of any graves was not stated. In 1948 it was concluded that the missing crew members had lost their lives at sea.
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, 163/147/235