LEST WE FORGET
Private William Jack SCULLY
Service No: DX945 (Australian Army)
Born: Darwin NT, 14 March 1919
Enlisted in the Army: 28 April 1943
Unit: No. 29 Employment Company
Died: Wounds from an Air Raid: Darwin NT, 20 June 1943, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Adelaide River War Cemetery NSW
CWGC Additional Information: Son of James and Sarah Scully, of Mayne Junction, Queensland
Roll of Honour: Darwin NT
Remembered: Panel 94, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
The enemy bombers, now reduced to fifteen, remained in formation and then turned in towards Darwin where the anti-aircraft guns opened fire. Soon after, No. 457 Squadron attacked them and destroyed another bomber which crashed in flames on Cox Peninsula. It was now 10.45 a.m. and the bombers ‘ target was Winnellie where they dropped forty bombs of the “daisy-cutter” type on the air force and army camps. Three* soldiers were killed and eleven wounded. Two huts and a railway truck loaded with sixty drums of oil were also destroyed and the railway line broken in three places. After dropping their bombs the enemy planes flew across Darwin harbour.
Extract from Odgers, G.J. (George James) (VX127783) Air War Against Japan 1943-1945, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1957 – Pages 60-1
* AWM and CWGC records show the deaths of two soldiers. Aircraftman Edward Ernest Gess (77037) was killed in a ground accident at Nightcliffe Camp on the same day and it is likely that his death has been included in the casualty count.
The soldiers killed were:
Driver Leonard Alfred Craddock (N247973)
Private William Jack Scully (DX945)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record B883, DX945