LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant John Henry DYSON
Service No: 402569
Born: Broken Hill NSW, 11 October 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 16 September 1940
Unit: No. 405 (Vancouver) Squadron (RCAF), RAF Station Pocklington, Yorkshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 405 Squadron Wellington aircraft W5516), North West Europe, 26 February 1942, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Leslie and Frances Elizabeth Dyson; husband of Barbara Sokell Dyson, of Mosman, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Mosman NSW
Remembered: Panel 111, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 133, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Wellington W5516 of took off from Pocklington at 1900 hours on 26 February 1942, to bomb Kiel, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Other crews reported a heavy concentration of searchlights and flak over the target area. At 2013 hours near Husem, two vapour trails were seen by one pilot and a minute later a large red flash in the sky and a burning aircraft seen descending. This may or may not have been W5516. Following post war enquiries and investigations, it was recorded in 1949 that the missing crew members had no known graves.
The crew members of W6615 were:
Flight Sergeant John Henry Dyson (402569) (Observer)
Wing Commander Gordon Dale MacAllister (C/169) (RCAF) (Second Pilot)
Flight Sergeant William Stapleton Piers (R/56087) (RCAF) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Edmund Cecil Phillips (R/60734) (RCAF) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant James Alexander Robson (68798) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Mervyn Peter Frederick Robson (R/65815) (RCAF) (Wireless Operator 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 Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/104/104