LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant John Alexander BRYDEN
Service No: 404601
Born: Pittsworth QLD, 21 November 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 October 1940
Unit: No. 460 Squadron, RAF Breighton, Yorkshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 460 Squadron Wellington aircraft Z1216), Germany, 11 September 1942, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfal, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Richard and Martha Bryden, of Warwick, Queensland, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Warwick QLD
Remembered: Panel 107, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Date: 10-11 September 1942
Target: Dusseldorf
Total Force: Dispatched – 476, Attacking – 360
RAAF Force: No. 460 Dispatched – 10, Attacking – 7
Tons of Bombs Dropped: 760
Total Aircraft Lost: 30
RAAF Aircraft Lost: 2
On 10th-11th September, however, a good concentration of bombs on the town was again made possible by the absence of cloud, though some bombs fell as far away as Krefeld and Munchen Gladbach. An additional 100 acres in the centre of the city and thirty more factories were destroyed,
and this raid in conjunction with the first, made Dusseldorf, in relation to its size, more heavily and effectively damaged than even Cologne.
Extract from Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Against Germany and Italy 1939-1943, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1954 – Pages 328-9
Wellington Z1216 took off from RAF Breighton at 2019 hours on the night of 10 September 1942 to bomb Dusseldorf. Bomb load 810 x 4 lb (2 kg) incendiaries. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Ten machines took off from Breighton on the raid. Z 1216 was on loan from RAF Station Hemswell while the crew members of Z 1216 were members of 460 Conversion Flight. Post war it was established that the aircraft crashed in the vicinity of Cologne, Germany
The crew members of Z1216 were:
Flight Sergeant Albert Ernest Brown (403105) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant John Alexander Bryden (404601) (Pilot)
Sergeant Keith John Danks-Brown (404403) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Terence Claude Harris (406453) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant James Kevin King (406980) (Front Gunner)
No. 460 Squadron lost Wellington R1695 (Flight Sergeant James Christopher Pearson (404941) (Pilot)) on 11 September 1942.
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, 163/93/666
Bibliography:
Firkins, P. C. (Peter Charles) (441386) Strike and Return, Westward Ho Publishing City Beach WA, 1985