LEST WE FORGET
Warrant Officer Ian Richard Steele NOBLE
Service No: 422349
Born: Hurstville NSW, 18 October 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 26 April 1942
Unit: No. 86 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Tain
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 86 Squadron Liberator aircraft BZ943), off the Scottish Coast, 18 November 1944, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Roderick and Jean Buchanan Noble, of Ingleburn, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Ingleburn NSW
Remembered: Panel 259, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At night on 18 November 1944 Liberator BZ943 took off from Tain on a non-operational training flight using the Leigh Light. The aircraft crashed in the sea about 11 miles north east of Banff, Scotland. Continuous searches for any survivors were made by aircraft and rescue launches but all the crew members had been killed.
The crew members of BZ943 were:
Flying Officer Sidney Dalton Easterbrook (411302) (Navigator Bomb Aimer) Remains recovered
Flight Lieutenant Geoffrey George Gates (126651) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Warrant Officer Gordon Fairfax Hough (420389) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Pilot Officer John Arthur Humphreys (188311) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air) Remains recovered
Flight Sergeant Bernard Thomas McCabe (1054161) (RAFVR)
Warrant Officer John Mellon (421360) (Wireless Operator Air)
Warrant Officer Ian Richard Steele Noble (422349) (Wireless Operator Air)
Flying Officer John William Norrie (421191) (RNZAF)
Warrant Officer Reginald John Peck (420786) (Wireless Operator Air)
Pilot Officer Harry Pordage (414079) (Navigator)
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, 166/30/86
Bibliography:
Jay, Alwyn, Endurance; Coastal Command Liberator Operations 1941-5, Banner Books, Maryborough QLD, 4650, 1996