LEST WE FORGET
Warrant Officer Stanley John HART
Service No: 406204
Born: Subiaco WA, 21 March 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 12 September 1940
Unit: No. 4 Squadron
Died: Air Operations: (No. 4 Squadron Wirraway aircraft A20-492), New Guinea, 17 January 1943, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, PNG
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Patrick Joseph and Charlotte Rose Hart; husband of Lois Hart, of Armidale, New South Wales
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 98, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
On 16 January 1943, Wirraway aircraft A20-492 was lost on when the aircraft crashed on a reconnaissance operation in the Gona Area at Giruwa (8 kms west of Gona), in small clearing about 1000 metres from the road. The bodies of the two crew members were discovered at 0300 hrs Z on the 19 January by soldiers of the 2/18th Battalion Australian Army. Though the area was held by Japanese Troops at the time of the forced landing, it is not known if they were captured and executed, or were killed trying to evade capture as the remains were found some 70 metres from the wreck. An Army patrol found the wreck of the aircraft, and in 1946 a RAAF search party found the remains of the crew.
The crew members of A20-492 were:
Warrant Officer Stanley John Hart (406204) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Harold Wendell Phillips (8746) (Wireless Air Gunner)
References:
ADF Serials Team Wirraway A20-492 On-line Record
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A9845, 195