The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (423743) Flying Officer Graydon Raymond Howe, No. 42 Operational Training Group, Royal Air Force, Second World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Charis May, the story for this day was on (423743) Flying Officer Graydon Raymond Howe, No. 42 Operational Training Group, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

423743 Flying Officer Graydon Raymond Howe, No. 42 Operational Training Group, Royal Air Force
KIA 6 June 1944
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 4 April 2015

Today we pay tribute to Flying Officer Graydon Raymond Howe, who was killed in the service of the Royal Air Force on D-Day, 6 June 1944.

D-Day 1944 has become an iconic event not only in the history of the Second World War but also in the history of the Western world. On this tumultuous day, a multi-national Allied force landed on the shores of Normandy. It was the first major step in the liberation of Western Europe from the tyranny of Nazism and fascism.

Born in Marrickville on 26 November 1919, Graydon Howe was the son of Percy and Fanny Howe. Before enlisting in the Second Australian Imperial Force on 17 December 1940, Howe completed his leaving certificate in mechanics, receiving a first-class grade.

Rising to the rank of lieutenant, Howe was discharged from the army in July 1942. The very next day he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force.

In 1943 Howe married Judith Rothwyn, of Burwood, Sydney, and after a period of training as a pilot he embarked for overseas service. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, he was one of almost 16,000 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who joined Royal Air Force squadrons in Britain throughout the course of the war.

A member of No. 42 Operational Training Group, which was attached to No. 38 Group, Transport Command, Howe piloted an Albemarle twin-engine transport aircraft during Operation Tonga – the British airborne component of the D-Day operations.

It was during these operations, on the night of preceding 6 June 1944 that Howe’s Albemarle crashed near the village of St Sylvain, southeast of Caen. Howe was killed, along with his six crewmates. The bodies were recovered by German troops, who allowed the Mayor of St Sylvain to arrange burial within the St Sylvain churchyard. The graves of the seven airmen can be found side by side in the churchyard of the small French village to this day.

For many years after the war Howe’s wife, mother, father, brothers, and sisters all marked his memory with commemorative notices in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Howe was one of thousands of Australians who served within the British and Commonwealth forces on D-Day and throughout the Normandy campaign. On this day of days, Graydon Howe made the ultimate sacrifice.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 Australians killed in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Graydon Raymond Howe, and all of those Australians – as well as our Allies and brothers in arms – who gave their lives in the hope for a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section