LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Reginald James STOKES
Service No: 406373
Born: Northampton WA, 4 May 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 November 1940
Unit: No. 11 Squadron (RAF), Feni, Bangladesh
Died: Air Operations (No. 11 Squadron Blenheim aircraft Z7619), Bangladesh, 21 May 1943, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Chittagong War Cemetery, Bangladesh
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Walter Edward and Flora Stokes; husband of Isabel Stokes, of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Northampton WA
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Blenheim Z7619 crashed into the sea in the Bay of Bengal near Cox’s Bazaar due to enemy action at 0300 (Greenwich Mean Time) on 21 May 1943. The crash was in position 021.30N 091.55E some 60 miles south of Chittagong. The aircraft had taken off from Chittagong and was attacked by Japanese fighters and shot down. All on board were killed.
Those on board Z7619 were:
Pilot Officer Colin Lloyd Cubitt (408027) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Charles Peter Hutton (573547) (RAF) (Fitter IIA)
Pilot Officer Charles Pigdon (52071) (RAF) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Pilot Officer Neville Francis Davis Simpson (400664) (Supernumerary Pilot, serving with No. 79 Squadron RAF)
Pilot Officer Reginald James Stokes (406373) (Pilot)
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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/38/155