LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant John Frederick Bice WEARNE
Service No: 412778
Born: Longueville NSW, 26 March 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 July 1941
Unit: No. 1651 Heavy Conversion Unit (RAF), RAF Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1651 Heavy Conversion Unit Stirling aircraft N6005), Cambridgeshire, 31 August 1943, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Cambridge City Cemetery, Cambridgeshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles Herbert and Rebecca Catherine Wearne, of Longueville, New South Wales, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Lane Cove NSW
Remembered: Panel 132, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Australia Remembers 1939-1945 Memorial, Lane Cove NSW
On the 31st August 1943, Stirling N6005 took off from RAF Downham Market, Norfolk, intending to return to RAF Waterbeach. Some 10 minutes into the flight at 2040 hours, the aircraft banked steeply and spun into the ground a mile north at Littleport Side, Shippey Hill on the border between Cambridgeshire and Suffolk and approximately 7 miles north north east of Ely. The nine crew members on board were killed. Eye witnesses said the aircraft was flying very low in the region of 200 and 400 feet, with all navigation lights on. The aircraft approached Shippey Hill railway station and was observed to suddenly climb and at the same time make a violent turn to starboard as if to avoid the signal box. The aircraft did not recover from this turn and the reason for flying so low was not known.
The crew members of N6005 were:
Flight Sergeant Robert George Cotton (413818) (RNZAF) (Second Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Ivan Aubery Eliot (415024) (Navigator)
Sergeant Patrick Irwin (1186092) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Derek Parsons (1673114) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Warrant Officer Richard William Pratt (523915) (RAF) (Flight Engineer Instructor)
Flight Sergeant Frederick Payne (421987) (RNZAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant John Frederick Bice Wearne (412778) (Air Bomber)
Flying Officer Clarence William Woods DFM (402941) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant George Louis Yensen (421954) (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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/43/323
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line