LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Wilson Harry Emanuel WRIGHT
Service No: 422342
Born: Mosman NSW, 30 May 1909
Enlisted in the RAAF: 26 April 1942
Unit: No. 467 Squadron, RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 467 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ME 851), France, 16 July 1944, Aged 35 years
Buried: Lignieres-de-Touraine Communal Cemetery, Indre-et-Loire, France
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William Martin Wright and Bertha Wright; husband of Joan Wright, of Bellevue Hill, New South Wales, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 111, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Australians in No. 5 Group were out again the following night (16-17 July) when railway yards and the junction of the Paris-Le Creusot main lines were severely damaged at Nevers. These excellent results were not immediately seen by the eight crews of No. 463 and the nine of No. 467 which took part, because, as an experiment in avoiding the extinguishing of ground markers, delayed-action bombs were employed. These bombs were fitted with tail tracers to allow bomb aimers to follow the trajectory and this did give some confidence that the bomb pattern had in fact been concentrated.
Extract from Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Over Europe 1944-1945, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1963 – Page 236
Lancaster ME 851 took off from RAF Waddington at 2219 hours on the night of 15/16th July 1944 to bomb marshalling yards at Nevers, France. Bomb load 10 x 1000 lb (pound) (450 kg) and 3 x 500 lb (225 kg) bombs. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Nine aircraft from the Squadron took part in the raid and one of these ME851 failed to return. Post war it was established that the aircraft crashed at Lignieres-de-Touraine, a small village south of the Loire and some 22 kms west south west of Tours and 3kms south of the village of Langeais, France.
The crew members of ME 851 were:
Flying Officer James Alwyn Ewen (423689) (Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Edmund William Charles Goode (1704545) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Arthur Hedley Jenkins (424764) (Air Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant William Joseph Bernard Murphy (J28934) (RCAF) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant David Alistair Paterson (427726) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant William Paul (423870) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Wilson Harry Emanuel Wright (422342) (Navigator)
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, 166/44/154