LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer John Read HORN
Service No: 402355
Born: Sydney NSW, 27 May 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 19 August 1940
Unit: No. 405 (Vancouver) Squadron (RCAF), RAF Station Pocklington, Yorkshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 405 Squadron Lancaster aircraft W5527), North Sea, 2 August 1941, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Henry William Charles and Valerie Adele Horn, of Double Bay, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 62, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 133, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: University of Sydney World War 2 Roll of Honour, Camperdown NSW
Lancaster W5527 took off from Pocklington at 2235 hours on the night of 2 August 1941 to bomb Hannover, Germany. Nothing further was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. In a 1949 report following investigations by the Missing Research and Enquiry Unit, it was established that the body of Sergeant McKenzie (RAF) was washed ashore at Husby, Denmark, on 23 August 1941 and he is buried in the Vestre cemetery at Lemvig, Denmark. No trace of the remaining five crew members could be found and it was recorded that they had lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of W5527 were:
Pilot Officer Reginald Cox (64874) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer John Read Horn (402355) (Second Pilot)
Pilot Officer Andrew Owen Learmonth (J/4764) (RCAF)
Sergeant Henry Bruce McKenzie (1116548) (RAFVR)
Sergeant John Moorby Reed (994355) (RAFVR)
Flight Sergeant Ronald Mason Thomas (971203) (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, 1633/36/96
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line