LEST WE FORGET
Flight Lieutenant Frederick John KING
Service No: 15471
Born: Sydney NSW, 3 December 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 2 June 1940
Unit: No. 12 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Wickenby
Died: Air Operations: (No. 12 Squadron Lancaster aircraft JB359), Germany, 25 March 1944, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Francis Bathurst King and Matilda King; husband of Martha Joyce King, of Goole, Yorkshire, England
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 125, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Lancaster JB359 took off from Wickenby at 1835 hours on the night of 24/25 March 1944 to bomb Berlin, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. Following post war enquiries it was believed the aircraft crashed when homebound coming down some 3kms north of Herzgerode and all the crew members were killed.
The crew members of JB359 were:
Flight Lieutenant John Hopkinson Bracewell DFC (122351) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flying Officer Donald Arthur Colombo DFC (143466) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Cecil William Hicks (1321823) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer Andrew Burnet Hunter (151249) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer)
Flight Lieutenant Frederick John King (15471) (Pilot)
Sergeant Henry Norman Norton (942326) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flying Officer Richard Hubert Stevens (143597) (RAFVR) (Wireless 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, 166/22/215