LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant John McDonald RANKIN
Service No: 411829
Born: Warwick QLD, 23 June 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 25 May 1941 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 6 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit (RAF), RAF Station Chipping Norton
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 6 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit Oxford aircraft T1339), Oxfordshire, 21 August 1942, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Little Rissington (St Peter Churchyard), Gloucestershire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Donald Stephen and Ruby Augusta Rankin, of Longueville, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Longueville NSW
Remembered: Panel 129, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Australia Remembers 1945-1995 Memorial, Lane Cove NSW
On 21 August 1942, Oxford T1339 took off on a night cross-country training flight. Shortly after take-off from Chipping Norton, T1339 collided with No. 15 Operational Training Unit Wellington aircraft T2557 and crashed at approximately 0510 hours at Cotts Farm, three miles from Chipping Norton. The two crew members of T1339 and the six crew members of T2557 were killed. At Chipping Norton, a double row flare path with Goose Neck flares were in use at the time of the collision with the dawn about to break.
The crew members of Oxford T1339 were:
Sergeant Stanley Edmund Downs (1385092) (RAFVR) (Instructor Pilot)
Sergeant John McDonald Rankin (411829) (Pilot under instruction)
The crew members of Wellington T2557 were:
Sergeant Noel Francis Boxwell (553845) (RAF)
Sergeant Frank Gillard (1107618) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Malcolm Stevenson Haynes (1263649) (RAFVR)
Pilot Officer Alan MacDonald Henderson (116744) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Patrick O’Brien (1117104) (RAFVR)
Pilot Officer Albert Wyndham Stilwell (115530) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Chorley W R, Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 7 Operational Training Units 1940-1947, Midland Counties Publications UK, 2002
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/155/106
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line