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| Image Source: Australian War Memorial |
The photo captures the memorial plaque and floral tributes in the backyard of
the family home of RAAF Flight Sergeant Jack Wormald, No. 466 Squadron,
c. 1944–1947. (38 Terrace Road, Dulwich Hill.) Inscribed on the plaque were the words ‘A tribute to the
memory of our beloved son Flight Sergeant Jack Dudley Wormald RAAF and
his crew lost over Berlin Feb 15th 1944, aged 21 years. God gave thy
brave soul wings. My Son. My Son’. The dog had belonged to Jack Wormald.
Jack Wormald and the crew of Halifax HX293 went
missing on 15 February 1944 on an operation to Berlin, but they actually
crashed and died in Holland, where the remains of all seven of them
were buried by Dutch people in the Protestant Churchyard at Grootegast
(Opende). Before the Commonwealth War Graves Commission erected their
standard headstones over the graves, the inhabitants of Grootegast build
a memorial to the crew, and in 1951 it was visited by the Australian
Ambassador to the Netherlands, Mr Alfred Sterling. At a ceremony the
Ambassador laid a wreath of red tulips on the graves, as did the
Burgomaster of Grootegast. It is clear that the parents of Jack Wormald
were in touch with the people of Grootegast, because affixed to the
memorial to this day is a small plaque in the shape of Australia, on
which are these words: ‘Mr and Mrs Wormald, 32 Terrace Road, Dulwich
Hill, Sydney, wish to thank the people of Opende for the loving care of
this monument erected to the memory of our beloved son Jack (pilot) and
his crew’.
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| Jack Dudley Wormald (Centre Front) and his flight crew. |
