LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant John Ronald FORBES
Service No: 419171
Born: Prahran VIC, 30 December 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 17 July 1942
Unit: Overseas Aircraft Delivery Unit (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: (Overseas Aircraft Delivery Unit Wellington aircraft HZ129), Atlantic Ocean, 19 November 1943, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John Leo and Ada Forbes, of West Preston, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Prahran VIC
Remembered: Panel 192, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 19 November 1943 Wellington HZ129 took- off from RAF Station Portreath for Gibraltar in transit to North Africa. The aircraft failed to arrive at Gibraltar.
The crew members of HZ129 were:
Sergeant Patrick Joseph Deveney (990042) (RAFVR)
Flight Sergeant John Ronald Forbes (419171) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Leonard Stanley Harris (1600130) (RAFVR)
Flight Sergeant Ross Henley Matheson (413628) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant John Ambrose McCormack Murray (423208) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Austin Eveleigh Robinson (1485117) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Leonard Thomas Smith (1672344) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Frederick John Wooldridge (1336795) (RAFVR)
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, 166/14/126