LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Thomas Henry HOWLETT
Service No: 400348
Born: Bairnsdale VIC, 29 July 1919
Enlisted in the RAAF: 18 August 1940
Unit: No. 104 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 104 Squadron Wellington aircraft Z8522), Libyan area, 9 October 1942, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Walter William Scott Howlett and Hilda Eileen Howlett, of Swan Reach, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Swan Reach VIC
Remembered: Column 265, Alamein Memorial, Egypt
Remembered: Panel 124, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 9 October 1942 Wellington Z8522 took off from Kabrit to attack Landing Grounds Nos. 17 and 18 on night operations in Libya. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Following post war enquiries and investigations, it was recorded in 1948 that the missing crew members had no known graves.
The crew members of Z8522 were:
Flight Sergeant Edwin Laurence Anderson (402632) (Pilot)
Sergeant Mervyn Ainsley Ball (1284593) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/Air)
Flight Sergeant Leslie Jack Robert Govett (401347) (Observer)
Flight Sergeant Thomas Henry Howlett (400348) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Andrew James Penman (113875) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Albert Alfred Charles Peters (400355) (Wireless Operator/Air 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 Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A706, 163/123/357