LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Noel Albert PARDON
Service No: 419211
Born: Mildura VIC, 21 September 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 17 July 1942
Unit: No. 102 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Pocklington
Died: Air Operations: (No. 102 Squadron Halifax aircraft LW143), France, 29 June 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Marissel French National Cemetery, Oise, France
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Albert Alexander and Charlotte Alice Valerie Pardon, of Trentham, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Camberwell VIC
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2157 hours on the night of 28 June 1944 Halifax LW143 took off from Pocklington detailed to bomb rail facilities at Blainville, France. The aircraft crashed near Lyons-La-Foret, France, and three crew members were killed and four became Prisoners of War.
The crew members of LW143 were:
Flight Sergeant Nigel Douglas Campbell (426774) (Pilot)
Sergeant A D Eagle (1580682) (RAFVR) (Navigator) PoW
Sergeant R W Joyce (1850911) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) PoW
Sergeant D E Leslie (628603) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) PoW
Sergeant R L Leveington (1254416) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) PoW
Flight Sergeant Noel Albert Pardon (419211) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Jack Wilson (J/90298) (RCAF) (Air Bomber)
A Missing Research and Enquiry team later reported “the four PoWs were taken to a house and hidden. On 7 August they were taken to Hacqueville and again hidden in a house. The next day they were taken by car said to belong to the Belgium resistance movement working from Paris and appeared to have been betrayed. They were kept in Fresnes Prison for a week.”
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, 166/32/423