LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant John Percival COSGROVE
Service No: 408122
Born: Launceston TAS, 11 May 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 6 December 1940
Unit: No. 460 Squadron, RAF Station Breighton, Yorkshire
Died: Air Operation (No. 460 Squadron Wellington aircraft Z1290), Germany, 29 April 1942, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Hamburg War, Hamburg, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Francis Alfred and Ida Emma Cosgrove; husband of Dorothy Christina Cosgrove, of Launceston, Tasmania
Roll of Honour: Launceston TAS
Remembered: Panel 107, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
For a moderately successful raid on Kiel on 28th-29th April, No. 460 dispatched ten Wellingtons, all of which had difficulty in finding their target, and one of which failed to return.
Extract from Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Against Germany and Italy 1939-1943, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1954 – Page 313
Wellington Z1290 took off from RAF Breighton at 2226 hours on 28 April 1942 to attack Kiel, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Post war it was established that the aircraft crashed in the vicinity of Neumunster and that all the crew had been killed. In 1953 a statement by a citizen of Poland (through the Red Cross) reported that the aircraft was shot down by a German fighter and exploded in midair.
The crew members of Z1290 were:
Pilot Officer Ralph Bond (402836) (Observer)
Sergeant John Francis Carpender (404868) (Second Pilot)
Sergeant John Percival Cosgrove (408122) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Trevor Hopetoun McIlveen (402600) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Sergeant William Walter Perroux (404661) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Leslie Milton Shephard (402885) (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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/95/268