LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Charles John HODGE
Service No: 437854
Born: Kent Town SA, 28 May 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 3 April 1943
Unit: No. 103 Squadron (RAF), RAF Elsham Wolds, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 103 Squadron Lancaster aircraft LM177), North Sea, 5 April 1945, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John Henry and Eleanor Jane Hodge; husband of Leona Joy Hodge, of Unley, South Australia
Roll of Honour: Adelaide SA
Remembered: Panel 284, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 124, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: World War II Honour Roll, National War Memorial of SA, North Terrace, Adelaide
Lancaster LM177 of No. 103 Squadron took off from RAF Station Elsham Wolds, detailed to lay mines in enemy waters in the Aarhus Bay, Denmark. LM 177 took off on the night of 4 April 1945 but nothing further was heard and the aircraft did not return to base. Four other 103 Squadron aircraft took part in the mission, and when homeward bound from the Danish coast, members of another crew saw three aircraft shot down behind them but were unable to identify any individual aircraft. Two of the aircraft appeared to crash into the sea and one on the land. In each case the mines would have been already laid. In 1949 it was reported that all efforts to find any trace of the aircraft or crew had been unsuccessful and the crew had been recorded as missing lost at sea.
The crew members of LM177 were:
Flight Sergeant Charles John Hodge (437854) (Navigator)
Flying Officer Lincoln Hole (414031) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Sidney Alexander Jeffrey (430123) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Edmund Kelly (1583495) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Stanley David Pearce (432969) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Evan Frederick Shannon (435489) (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer Vivian Lawrence Vallentine (437300) (Mid Upper 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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/18/704