LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Jack Peter MANSELL
Service No: 436085
Born: West Perth WA, 11 May 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 7 November 1942
Unit: No. 1666 Conversion Unit (RAF), RAF Wombleton, Yorkshire
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1666 Conversion Unit Halifax aircraft LJ445), Worcestershire, 24 August 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Bath (Haycombe) Cemetery, Somerset UK
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John William and Eileen Margaret Mansell, of North Perth, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Perth WA
Remembered: Panel 126, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
On the 24th August 1844, Halifax LJ445 took off from RAF Wombleton at 2102 hours for a night cross-country training flight, during whish the propeller blades broke up on the starboard outer engine. This, it was subsequently assessed, would have set in train a violent vibration and as the pilot lost control the elevators overbalanced and the tailplane detached. Debris was spread over a wide area some four miles south of Defford airfield. All the crew were killed.
The crew members of LJ445 were:
Sergeant Edward William Albert Dunford (1853351) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Lieutenant Peter Blundell Franklin (1359) (SAAF) (Pilot)
Sergeant John David Greensmith (1866929) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer James Victor Hudson (156996) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant John Bickerstaff Iles (1852258) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Jack Peter Mansell (436085) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Carl Berthold Schuller (418685) (Navigator)
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 A9301, 436085