LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant James Brooks Hamilton SMITH
Service No: 416630
Born: Maitland SA, 7 March 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 21 July 1941
Unit: No. 218 Squadron (RAF), RAF Downham Market, Norfolk
Died: Air Operations (No. 218 Squadron Stirling aircraft BF572), off the Netherlands Coast, 23 June 1943, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Castricum Protestant Churchyard, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William John Hamilton Smith and Adelaide Mary Belle Smith, of Prospect, South Australia
Roll of Honour: Prospect SA
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: World War II Honour Roll, National War Memorial of SA, North Terrace, Adelaide
Stirling BF572 took off from RAF Downham Market at 0009 hours on the night of 22/23rd June, 1943, detailed to bomb Mulheim, Germany. The aircraft was last heard on W/T (radio) when its position was plotted as 52.10N 03. The aircraft failed to return to base. It was presumed that the aircraft was lost over the North Sea. Six of the crew members lost their lives and one became a Prisoner of War.
The crew members of BF572 were:
Sergeant Reginald Harrison Cramm (798741) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Wyndham Henry Davies (1425083) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant George Labiuk (R/182511) (RCAF) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Cederic Roland Minns (1270648) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant P W Farr (518394) (RAF) (Air Gunner) PoW
Sergeant Gilbert Ernest Rose (1318644) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant John Brooks Hamilton Smith (416630) (Pilot)
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 A705, 166/38/180