LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Jack Findley THOMAS
Service No: 411563
Born: Toowoomba QLD, 15 October 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 24 May 1941
Unit: No. 9 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Waddington
Died: Air Operations: (No. 9 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ED477), Germany, 31 January 1943, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Sage War Cemetery, Niedersachsen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Philip Lewis Thomas and Annie Hodge Thomas, of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Toowoomba QLD
Remembered: Panel 131, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2349 hours on the night of 30 January 1943 Lancaster ED477 took off from Waddington to bomb Hamburg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. A Missing research and Enquiry team later established that the aircraft was shot down and crashed near the village of Ristedt. Local eye witnesses stated “at 0300 hours on 31 January 1943 a four engine bomber approached the village from the west, height about 1,000 feet. The aircraft was burning in the air. Within a few minutes the aircraft crashed on Ristedt Moor, a pasture land belonging to a farmer by the name of Jacob of Ristedt. No explosion was heard and it was assumed there were no bombs on the aircraft when it crashed.” All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of ED477 were:
Sergeant Alfred Walter Hover (1392470) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Stanley Frederick McLean (929866) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Laurence Alfred Morgan (408610) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant John Murtagh (1120343) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Bryan Milton Swallow (1219652) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer)
Flight Sergeant Jack Findley Thomas (411563) (Pilot)
Sergeant William John Veysey (404583) (RNZAF) (Wireless Air 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, 166/39/21