LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Clifford Desmond JONES
Service No: 424281
Born: Yarraville VIC, 14 January 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 17 August 1942 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 82 Operational Training Unit (RAF), Satellite airfield RAF Station Gamston
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 82 Operational Training Unit Wellington aircraft X3409), Nottinghamshire, 4 February 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Ollerton Cemetery, Nottinghamshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Albert Henry and Muriel Irene Jones, of Shepparton, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Shepparton VIC
Remembered: Panel 124, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On the night of 3/4 February 1944, Wellington X3409 was detailed to carry out a non-operational
training Bullseye exercise. The aircraft crashed at 0026 hours at Nottingham and five of the crew members were killed. The aircraft took off at 2012 hours and proceeded with the exercise in the normal manner. At 2332 hours a position message was received but was impossible to plot. At 0005 hours the aircraft obtained a series of QDMs (magnetic headings to base) the last one at 0024 hours. At 0026 hours the aircraft was seen to hit the ground two miles north north west of Garston Station.
The crew members of X3409 were:
Sergeant Joseph Louis Barber (R/180634) (RCAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Alick Charles Fisher (1322490) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Clifford Desmond Jones (424281) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Edmund Henry Duggan Maguire (R/148733) (RCAF) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Weston Ross Waldron (R/216087) (RCAF) (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 A705, 166/2/120