LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer William James ROOKE
Service No: 414089
Born: Coraki NSW, 15 June 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 July 1941 (at Brisbane QLD)
Unit: No. 49 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Fiskerton
Died: Air Operations: (No. 49 Squadron Lancaster aircraft JA851), Denmark, 18 August 1943, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Franklin Richard and Vivian Grace Rooke, of Blackall, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Blackall QLD
Remembered: Panel 191, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 129, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2143 hours on the night of 17August 1943 Lancaster JA851 took off from Fiskerton to attack Peenemunde, Germany. Nothing further was heard from the aircraft after-take off and it did not return to base. Following post war enquiries and investigations, it was established that the aircraft had crashed approximately 5 kms west of Nordborg, Denmark, and the remains of one crew members were buried at Abenra Cemetery, Denmark. The remains of other members of the crew were not however located and they have no known graves.
The crew members of JA851 were:
Flight Sergeant William Arthur Davies MID (937521) (RAFVR)
Pilot Officer William James Rooke (414089) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant George Bernard Silvester DFM (977392) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Cecil Stancliffe (1130080) (RAFVR)
Pilot Officer Thomas Edwin Tomlin DFC (145156) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Thomas Tonkin DFM (156045) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Kenneth Ernest Watson (1433407) (RAFVR)
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, 166/36/101