LEST WE FORGET

Flying Officer Edwin William THOMAS

Service No: 410180
Born: Camberwell VIC, 7 August 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 5 December 1941
Unit: No. 467 Squadron, RAF Station Waddington, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 467 Squadron Lancaster aircraft PD231), Germany, 16 March 1945, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Durnbach War Cemetery, Bad Tolz, Bayern, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William Henry and Dorothy Ann Thomas, of Windsor, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Burwood VIC
Remembered: Panel 111, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT

In south-eastern Germany, but without direct relevance to the Russian campaign, Bomber Command on 16th-17th March attacked both Nuremberg (for the eighth time) and Wurzburg (for the first time). Sixteen RAAF Lancasters from Binbrook went to Nuremberg and 33 from Waddington bombed Wurzburg, one crew failing to return from each raid; both attacks were successful. These raids in Bavaria were of importance to the transportation plan and reflected Bomber Command opinion that as the Wehrmacht retreated into Germany strategic and tactical threads of the bombing offensive must become more closely interwoven than ever before. Natural selection and the factor that heavier bomb-loads could be carried on shorter journeys had already influenced Harris, however, in seizing the opportunity of improving weather during March to strike with unprecedented fury at transportation targets on the Western front, both by night and day.

Extract from Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Over Europe 1944-1945, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1963 – Page 422

Lancaster PD231 took off from RAF Waddington at 1746 hours on the night of 16 March 1945 to bomb Wurzburg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Sixteen aircraft from the Squadron took part in the raid and one of these PD231 failed to return. Post war it was established that the aircraft crashed in a wood near the village of Aufstettin, which is about 30 kms south of Wurzburg, Germany. Six of the crew members were killed and one became a Prisoner of War.

The crew members of PD231 were:

Sergeant B A Davies (1898607) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) PoW
Sergeant Thomas Helstrip (1594806) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant James Love Isles (424866) (Bomb Aimer)
Warrant Officer Maxwell Ernest Margules (423801) (Wireless Operator Air)
Flying Officer George Moses (432534) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Robert William Henry Smith (1603454) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Edwin William Thomas (410180) (Pilot)

No. 460 Squadron lost Lancaster PB816 (Flying Officer Vernon James Hedley (409303) (Pilot)) in the attack on Nurnberg on 16 March 1945.

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, 166/39/516

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