LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer James Arthur TROTTER
Service No: 402454
Born: Sydney NSW, 8 September 1910
Enlisted in the RAAF: 19 August 1940
Unit: No. 149 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Lakenheath
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 149 Squadron Stirling aircraft N6083), Suffolk, 24 August 1942, Aged 31 Years
Buried: Heddon-on-the-Wall (St Andrew) Churchyard, Northumberland
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Arthur and Lillian Trotter, of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, husband of Jean Bainbridge Fullarton Trotter, of Carruthers, Saskatchewan, Canada
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 131, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2119 hours on the night of 24 August 1942 Stirling N6083 took off from Lakenheath detailed to bomb Frankfurt, Germany. The aircraft crashed at 2130 hours, 1 mile east of the airfield at Portaway Hill, near Eriswell and all the crew members were killed. The cause of the tragedy was an engine fire, which developed soon after the aircraft became airborne.
The crew members of N6083 were:
Flight Sergeant Alexander Nelson Charlton (743081) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant William Green (1129659) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Stanley Martin (967897) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant Denis Arthur Pebworth DFC (110304) (RAFVR) (Observer)
Sergeant Ronald Lindsay Raphael (617810) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer James Arthur Trotter (402454) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Eric Pierce Wynn (J/7472) (RCAF) (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 Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/59/72