LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Stanley Thomas PEKIN
Service No: 408873
Born: Colac VIC, 30 December 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 June 1941
Unit: No. 419 (Moose) Squadron (RCAF), RAF Station Middleton St George, Durham
Died: Air Operations: (No. 419 Squadron Halifax aircraft JD458), Baltic Sea, 18 August 1943, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Richard John and Isabel Eileen Pekin; husband of Rita Pekin, of Vite Vite, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Colac VIC
Remembered: Panel 193, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 133, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 18 August 1943 Halifax JD 458 took off from Middleton St George to bomb Peenemunde, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. The bodies of Sergeant Ramm and Sergeant Baker were washed ashore at Rugen Island in the Baltic Sea close to the north coast of Germany and are interred in the Berlin (Heerstrasse) British Military Cemetery. It was later recorded that the remaining missing crew members had lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of JD458 were:
Sergeant Herbert Charles Baker (1652940) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Frederick Peter Davis (1832294) (RAFVR) (Second Gunner)
Sergeant John Kevin Gilvary (1512418) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer)
Flight Sergeant Stanley Thomas Pekin (408873) (Pilot)
Sergeant Henry Price (1310592) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Sergeant Ernest Charles Ramm (1539979) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer Peter John Sparkes (133774) (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, 166/32/168