LEST WE FORGET
Flight Lieutenant Ian James ROBERTSON
Service No: 420498
Born: Balmain NSW, 8 November 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 8 November 1941
Unit: No. 7 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Oakington
Died: Air Operations: (No. 7 Squadron Lancaster aircraft JA408), Germany, 21 January 1944, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Hanover War Cemetery, Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of James and Edith Robertson, of Balmain, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Drummoyne NSW
Remembered: Panel 129, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Presbyterian Church Roll of Honour, Drummoyne NSW
Remembered: Drummoyne War Memorial, Drummoyne NSW
At 1952 hours on the night of 21 January 1944 Lancaster JA408 took off from Oakington to bomb Magdeburg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. In 1949 a Missing Research and Enquiry Unit reported “following interrogation of local inhabitants it was established that the aircraft was attacked by an enemy fighter at approximately 2200 hours on 21 January 1944 and crashed at Wohnste, 24 miles south west of Hamburg, and all the crew members were killed.”
The crew members of JA408 were:
Flying Officer Charles Horace Glossop (144606) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Allen James Hannah (422392) (RNZAF) (Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Francis Hilton (1390746) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Donald G J Lucas (900811) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Lieutenant Ian James Robertson (420498) (Pilot)
Sergeant E S Weatherill (1851185) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Warrant Officer Burney Edgar Richard Whitehouse DFC (1200847) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
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, 166/36/185
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line