The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (437781) Flight Sergeant George Edward Davis, No. 12 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 Michael Kelly, the story for this day was on (437781) Flight Sergeant George Edward Davis, No. 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

437781 Flight Sergeant George Edward Davis, No. 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force
Killed in flying battle 4 March 1945

Story delivered 17 September 2017

Today we pay tribute to Flight Sergeant George Edward Davis.

Born on the family farm at Telowie, South Australia, on 22 May 1924, George Davis was the son of Stacey Algernon Davis and Jane Eliza Davis.

Davis was educated at Telowie School and later Pirie High School, and then worked on the family farm.

Before he was 18, he begged his parents to allow him to enlist. On 27 May 1943, just a few days after he turned 19, Davis enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force and began training as a wireless operator and air gunner.

After his initial training in Australia, Davis embarked for overseas service. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, he was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers, who, throughout the course of the war, joined Royal Air Force squadrons or Australian squadrons based in Britain.

After his arrival in Britain, Davis undertook further specialist training before he was posted in late February 1945 to No. 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force.

As part of the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Command, No. 12 Squadron was equipped with four-engine Avro Lancaster heavy bombers.

On the night of 3 March 1945 the Lancaster in which Davis was the wireless operator and air gunner was undertaking a training flight, and was shot down by an enemy intruder near Stockwith, Lincolnshire.
Davis and all six of his fellow crewmates were killed. They were fellow Australians, Flight Sergeants Ronald Horstmann, Walter Pridmore, Alan
Cryer, and Alexander Weston; and British crewmates Pilot Officer Arthur Thomas and Flight Sergeant Thomas McCaffrey.

The bodies of the crew were recovered from the crash and Davis and his Australian crewmates are buried side by side in the RAF plot at Cambridge city cemetery.

Davis was just 20 years old. He had been with the squadron for less than a week.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 Australians who died while 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 George Edward Davis, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section