LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer John Henry PORTER
Service No: 414956
Born: Warwick QLD, 20 April 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 6 December 1941
Unit: No. 44 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Dunholme Lodge
Died: Air Operations: (No. 44 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ND518), Germany, 22 March 1944, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Durnbach War Cemetery, Bayern, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of James Watson Porter and Charlotte Amelia Porter, of Campbell’s Plain, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Warwick QLD
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1853 hours on the night of 22 March 1944 Lancaster ND518 took off from Dunholme Lodge to bomb Frankfurt, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. In a post war report by a Missing Research and Enquiry team it stated “the aircraft crashed
in a wood near Klein Krotzenbuirg, 14 kms east of Frankfurt.” Five of the crew members had been killed and two became Prisoners of War.
The crew members of ND518 were:
Pilot Officer James Barclay (173589) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air)
Sergeant Henry John Bowen (1653166) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Pilot Officer Harry Nevill Davies DFC (171929) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Wilson Holmes (1825958) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant C G Lander (572436) (RAF) (Air Bomber) PoW
Pilot Officer John Henry Porter (414956) (Pilot)
Sergeant G H Waugh (988339) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) PoW
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, 166/33/87