Wings of Valour

In Honour of AAFC 7 Wing WA

In December 2016, 7 Wing (WA) AAFC became the first Wing in Australia to have an Honour Roll Board of cadets who died in service. The Honour Board was funded by a DVA grant and researched and designed by Charles Page and Mike Hampson, of RAAFA WA AAFC Branch.

Finding the names of the West Australian air cadets who died in service  ensured they would not be forgotten, but what of their lives? For the sake of their sacrifice, and our heritage, there was a compelling need to put faces to the names and stories to the names. Thus began an intensive search that has reaped great rewards.

The stories that unfolded from 70-year-old files never ceased to amaze. Finding these men and their stories was something that needed to be done, because our duty of care extends beyond the field of battle.

In the European theatre, air gunner Raymond Broad’s Lancaster was shot down by a night fighter. After receiving the feared telegram, his proud mother Lucy replied, ‘My lad was the light of our house, and everyone had to be bright with him’.

Also shot down by a night fighter, pilot Richard Bennett was killed when his Lancaster was hit by canon fire and exploded in mid-air over Trachenau, Germany. And how could we forget Lancaster air gunner, Edward Charman, who was shot down over Germany on 11 November – Remembrance Day 1944.

Another Bomber Command casualty, John Parr Ion, was killed when his Lancaster was shot down over the Dutch coast in August 1944. His sister Norma visited the grave in 1984: ‘I still recall watching him walking up our street, rucksack on his back as he turned around for a final wave before boarding the trolley bus for Perth and his final departure. More and more families received telegrams advising their loved ones had been killed or missing in action, but somehow we bathed in the belief this wouldn’t happen to us –  but it did’.

In the Korean War, 77 Squadron Meteor pilot John Halley was shot down while ground strafing, on his 77th sortie. Also from 77 Squadron, Meteor pilot Max (Bluey) Colebrook won the DFM and US Air Medal, and was killed by ground fire while strafing near Seoul, Korea.

 Of the West Australian air cadets killed in Vietnam, five were in the Australian Army and one in the Navy. Corporal Peter Clements from 12 Flight Christian Brothers College was commander of an armoured personnel carrier at the iconic Battle of Long Tan, and received mortal injuries.

We owe these cadets a great debt, we have to put faces to the names, telling their stories through the book Wings of Valour, is one way of repaying that debt. Wings of Valour is history written with empathy, and makes for emotional and inspiring reading.