LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Joseph Henry SHORT
Service No: 413674
Born: Boggabri NSW, 24 February 1911
Enlisted in the RAAF: 12 September 1941
Unit: No. 12 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Wickenby
Died: Air Operations: (No. 12 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ED972), Germany, 31 August 1943, Aged 32 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Joseph Patrick and Sarah Roberts Short; husband of Mona Florence Short, of Hamilton, New South Wales, Australia. B.A.
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2350 hours on the night of 30 August 1943 Lancaster ED972 took off from Wickenby to bomb Nonchen-Gladbach, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. The aircraft crashed in the target area and all the crew members were killed
The crew members of ED972 were:
Sergeant Arthur Reginald Bish (1199609) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant Arnold Booth DFC (124861) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Seymour Villiers Brown (405997) (Navigator)
Pilot Officer Norman Roscoe Frazer (408585) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Mervyn Stacey (623214) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Joseph Henry Short (413674) (Bomb Aimer)
Wing Commander John Gordon Towle (37334) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)
Sergeant Ralph Wildbore (1321712) (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, 166/6/257