LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Selby Ronald JAMES
Service No: 427466
Born: Subiaco WA, 13 July 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 14 July 1942
Unit: No. 104 Squadron (RAF), Foggia Main, Italy
Died: Air Operations: Campaign against Oil (No. 104 Squadron Wellington aircraft LP499), Austria, 6 July 1944, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Klagenfurt War Cemetery, Austria
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Selby Hartwell James and Ivy Mary James; husband of Janette Miller James, of East Perth, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Perth WA
Remembered: Panel 124, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Remembered: Boans Employees’ World War II Honour Roll (Honour Board held at the RAAFA Museum Bull Creek WA)
Wellington LP499 took off on the night of 6/7th July 1944, detailed to bomb Feuersbrunn Aerodrome near Vienna, Austria. The purpose of this attack was to disrupt German fighter aircraft operations against US Bombers raiding facilities on the oil supply route along the Danube River. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it failed to return to base. A Missing Research and Enquiry team later reported “the aircraft was shot down on 6th July by a night fighter and crashed at Trestlgraben, approximately 32 miles south west of Vienna. All the crew were killed and they are buried in the Klagenfurt War Cemetery.”
The crew members of LP499 were:
Flight Lieutenant George Stevenson Cruden (126615) (RAFVR) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Flight Sergeant Robert Hamilton (1321229) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Selby Ronald James (427466) (Air Gunner)
Warrant Officer John Arnold McDonald (417233) (Pilot)
Sergeant Gordon William Pusey (1039691) (RAFVR) (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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/20/151