The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (423597) Flight Sergeant Gordon Arthur Armstrong, No. 77 Squadron, 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 Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on (423597) Flight Sergeant Gordon Arthur Armstrong, No. 77 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

423597 Flight Sergeant Gordon Arthur Armstrong, No. 77 Squadron, Royal Air Force
KIA 17 June 1944
Photograph: P07267.001

Story delivered 2 October 2015

Today we pay tribute to Flight Sergeant Gordon Arthur Armstrong, who was killed on active service with the Royal Air Force in 1944.

Born in Warrawee, New South Wales, Gordon was the son of Arthur Wentworth Armstrong and Gladys May Armstrong. As a young man Armstrong attended Barker’s College at Hornsby, and subsequently graduated from the Metropolitan Business College as a chartered accountant.

Before enlisting in the Royal Australian Air Force in July 1942, Armstrong worked for Harris & Horne Chartered Accountants in Martin Place, Sydney, and also served as a trooper in the 1st Australian Army Tank Battalion of the Militia.

Once in the RAAF Armstrong commenced training to become a bomb aimer. In November 1942 he embarked for Canada for further training. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme he was one of almost 27,000 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who joined British and Commonwealth squadrons in Britain throughout the course of the war.

Armstrong arrived in Britain July 1943 and undertook further specialist training. In March 1944 he was posted to No. 77 Squadron, Royal Air Force. The squadron was equipped with the four-engine Handley Page Halifax heavy bomber.

In the very early hours of 17 June 1944 the Halifax in which Armstrong was bomb aimer was shot down by flak during a raid on the synthetic oil works at Sterkrade, Germany, and crashed in the marshy land at Amstelveen, near Amsterdam.

Armstrong and all six of his fellow British and Australian crewmates were killed: fellow Australians Flight Sergeant Robert Blair, Flying Officer Lancelot Pratt, Warrant Officer John O’Meara, and Flying Officer John Date; and British crewmate Sergeant Dennis Tustin of the Royal Air Force.

The bodies of the crew were unable to be recovered at the time, and their names are listed on the Air Forces Memorial overlooking the River Thames. The Runnymede memorial lists all British and Commonwealth airmen with no known grave. Gordon Armstrong was 21 years old.

In 1953 two bodies were recovered from the crash scene, and one was identified as Warrant Officer John O’Meara. In June 1990 the wreckage of the Halifax was uncovered by the recovery team of the Royal Netherlands Air Force, including the unidentified remains of the final five members of the crew, who were later buried at Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery in October 1991.

Armstrong’s name and those of his five Australian crewmates are listed here on the Roll of Honour to my left, along with around 40,000 Australians who died serving 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 Flight Sergeant Gordon Arthur Armstrong, and all of those Australians – as well as our Allies and brothers in arms – who gave their lives for their nation.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section