LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Francis Thomas LANGLEY
Service No: 421287
Born: Griffith NSW, 27 April 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 31 January 1942
Unit: No. 37 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 37 Squadron Wellington aircraft LN641), former Yugoslavia, 24 February 1944, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Frederick Thomas Langley and Mary Ann Langley, of Griffith, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 16, Column 2, Malta Memorial, Malta
Remembered: Panel 125, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Griffith Cenotaph, Griffith NSW
At 1821 hours on 24 February 1944 Wellington LN641 took off from Tortorella Landing Ground to carry out operations against the Steyr Aircraft Works in Southern Austria. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Post war investigations revealed that a single aircraft had bombed the Aircraft Works on 24 February 1944, and LN 641 was apparently returning from the mission when it crashed. Extensive searches in the area and north-west Yugoslavia, failed to find any trace of the missing aircraft or crew, and they were recorded as having no known graves.
The crew members of LN641 were:
Flying Officer Charles Sidney Duncan (135624) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Matthew Alan Hutchinson (1545567) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Samuel Desmond Jeavons (1579202) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air)
Flight Sergeant Francis Thomas Langley (421287) (Pilot)
Sergeant James Dudley Topple (1869070) (RAFVR) (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, 166/24/393
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line