LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant John Hamilton WOODFORD
Service No: 400187
Born: St Kilda VIC, 13 June 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 23 June 1940
Unit: No. 78 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Middleton St George
Died: Air Operations: (No. 78 Squadron Halifax aircraft DT491), Germany, 11 September 1942, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles Campbell Woodford and Martha Jane Woodford, of Balaclava, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: St Kilda VIC
Remembered: Panel 132, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2014 hours on the night of 10 September 1942 Halifax DT491 took off from Middleton-St-George detailed to bomb Dusseldorf, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed near Dusseldorf and all the crew members were killed.
The crew members of DT491 were:
Sergeant Albert Edgar Arnold (404586) (RNZAF) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant William Charles Henry Hiscock (908307) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Wilfred Hodgson (1286431) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Robert James Roy (967125) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Charles Joseph Stevenson (117686) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Bruce Bisset Warren (1006895) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant John Hamilton Woodford (400187) (Rear 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, 163/179/209