The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (429960) Flight Sergeant Ronald Leslie Horstmann, 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 Jennifer Surtees, the story for this day was on (429960) Flight Sergeant Ronald Leslie Horstmann, No. 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

429960 Flight Sergeant Ronald Leslie Horstmann, No. 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force
Killed in flying battle 4 March 1945


Today we remember and pay tribute to Flight Sergeant Ronald Leslie Horstmann.

Ronald Horstmann was born on 28 April 1922 in the small settlement of Netherleigh, near Swan Reach in South Australia. The son of Johan and Blondine Horstmann, the young Ronald attended Mannum Higher Primary School, then Adelaide High School, and grew up alongside his brothers and sisters. A keen sportsman, he played tennis, cricket, football, and golf.

Following his schooling, Horstmann was employed as a bank clerk for the Bank of Adelaide, working at the Curramulka and Lamaroo branches.

On 10 October 1942, Horstmann enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force. Horstmann had two brothers who also served in the Second World War. His older brother, Private Leo Horstmann had been killed in May 1941 in the fighting during the siege of the Tobruk while serving with the 2/10th Battalion. Another brother joined the RAAF and survived the war.

Horstmann began training as a navigator. While he was training in the RAAF, he married Elva on 23 January 1943. Together, they had a daughter, Patricia Janet Horstmann, born on 18 April 1943.

A few months later, having finished his initial training in Australia, Horstmann 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.

His journey to Britain took him via Canada, where he arrived in July 1943. After several months of training in Canada he embarked for Britain in late April 1944.
Arriving in Britain, Horstmann undertook further specialist training before he was posted to No. 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force, in late February.

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 3/4 March 1945 the Lancaster in which Horstmann was the navigator was undertaking a training flight when it was shot down by an enemy intruder near Stockwith, Lincolnshire.

Horstmann, and all six of his fellow crewmates were killed. They were fellow Australians Flight Sergeant Walter Pridmore, Flight Sergeant George Davis, Flight Sergeant Alan Cryer, Flight Sergeant Alexander Weston and British crewmates Pilot Officer Arthur Thomas, and Flight Sergeant Thomas McCaffrey.
Horstmann was 22 years old. He had been with his squadron for less than a week when he was killed.

The bodies of the crew were recovered from the crash and Hostmann and his Australian crewmates are buried side by side in the RAF plot at Cambridge city cemetery.
Horstmann’s name is listed here 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 Ronald Leslie Horstmann, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section