LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Leslie Markham HOUGH
Service No: 417377
Born: Waverley NSW, 26 November 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 25 April 1942 (at Adelaide SA)
Unit: No. 218 Squadron (RAF), RAF Methwold, Norfolk
Died: Air Operations (No. 218 Squadron Lancaster aircraft PD374), Germany, 8 November 1944, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Frank and Sarah Annie Hough, of Adelaide, South Australia
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 257, 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 PD374 of No. 218 (Gold Coast) Squadron took off from RAF Station Methwold at 0825 Hours on 8 November 1944 to attack the Neerbeck Oil Plant at Homberg, Germany. Nothing further was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. German documents examined after the war recorded that the aircraft was shot down by anti-aircraft fire at 1030 hours on 8 November 1944, 2 kms east of Horstgen and four crew members were killed and three became Prisoners of War.
The crew members of PD374 were:
Flying Officer J H A Barron (153827) (RAF) (Air Bomber) PoW
Sergeant Henry Charles Burnside (1617065) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Clifford (148476) (RAF) (Navigator) PoW
Flying Officer Leslie Markham Hough (417377) (Pilot)
Sergeant John Lawson (1595595) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant S K Lee (RAF) (1853003) (Air Gunner) PoW
Warrant Officer John Henry Tales 9186308) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
The bodies of Sergeant Lawson and 3 other unidentified members of the crew were buried by the Germans at the village of Dachsberg in the same locality where the plane crashed. The bodies were later exhumed by members of the American forces, but all efforts to trace their place of reburial have been unsuccessful. In 1949 it was concluded that there appears no doubt that Flying Officer Hough and his three comrades were buried as unknown in one of the American Military cemeteries and they have been classified as having no known grave.
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, 166/18/521