LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Jacques Andre PICKEN
Service No: 428860
Born: Etretat, France, 15 July 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 10 October 1942 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 102 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Pocklington
Died: Air Operations: Resumption of the Strategic Bombing (No. 102 Squadron Halifax aircraft LW141), Germany, 2 November 1944, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Hotton War Cemetery, Luxembourg, Belgium
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Leslie and Andree Marie Marthe Picken, of Annerley, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1633 hours on the night of 2 November 1944 Halifax LW141 took off from Pocklington detailed to bomb Dusseldorf, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed at Bickerath presumably as a result of enemy action. Bickerath is about 11 miles south east of Aachen close to the border of Belgium. Six of the crew members were killed and one became a Prisoner of War.
The crew members of LW141 were:
Pilot Officer Jack Binstead (429099) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Russell Harold Lemmon (184135) (RAFVR) (Navigator) (from Norway) PoW
Sergeant Frederick William Lightowler (2202534) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Henry John Pearmain (429017) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Jacques Andre Picken (428860) (Air Bomber)
Flying Officer John Redmond (172972) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant William Wilson (1800221) (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, 166/32/531