LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant James Martin MOONEY
Service No: 424435
Born: Condoblin NSW, 8 July 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 12 September 1942
Unit: No. 50 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Skellingthorpe
Died: Air Operations: (No. 50 Squadron Lancaster aircraft LM394), Germany, 31 March 1944, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Hanover War Cemetery, Niedersachsen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Michael Joseph Bede Mooney and Otelia Mary Josephine Mooney, of Condoblin, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Condoblin NSW
Remembered: Panel 127, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Junee Cenotaph, Junee NSW
At 2214 hours on the night of 30 March 1944 Lancaster LM394 took off from Skellingthorpe detailed to bomb Nuremburg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. According to German documents the aircraft was shot down by a night fighter exploded in the air and crashed in a wood approximately 1,500 metres north of Beilstein, which is about 21 kms south west of Coblenz. All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of LM394 were:
Sergeant Jack Basil D’Arcy (1356909) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Arthur Horsfield (1451575) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air)
Flying Officer Thomas Wilbert Lavery (J/24534) (RCAF) (Air Bomber)
Flight Sergeant James Martin Mooney (424435) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Arthur Ronald Morgan (1486732) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Reginald Henry Frederick Ogborne (1587940) (RAFVR) (Front Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant Maldon Ulisse Robinson (39579) (RNZAF) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Victor Andrew Sanderson (1554662) (RAFVR) (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 Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/28/267
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line