The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (62186) Flying Officer Lindsay Page Bacon, No. 7 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 (62186) Flying Officer Lindsay Page Bacon, No. 7 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

62186 Flying Officer Lindsay Page Bacon, No. 7 Squadron, Royal Air Force
KIA 20 March 1945
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 16 March 2015

Today we pay tribute to Flying Officer Lindsay Page Bacon, who was killed in the service of the Royal Air Force in 1945.

Born in Coffs Harbor, New South Wales, on 25 January 1924, Lindsay Page Bacon was the son of Victor Frederick Bacon and Emily Bacon Bacon. Victor was a veteran of the First World War, having served in the AIF with the 34th Battalion.

A top student, Lindsay Bacon studied engineering at the University of Sydney. He also played football and tennis, and served in the Sydney University Regiment of the Militia.

Bacon enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in 1942 at the age of 18. He attended the Radio School and qualified with the rank of pilot officer. His sister, Kathleen Bacon, served on Malta as a sister in the British Army Nursing Service. His brother, Lance Corporal Wesley Bacon, served in the Second Australian Imperial Force and was present for seven months of the siege of Tobruk.

In August 1943 Lindsay Bacon 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 throughout the course of the war.

In Britain he undertook further specialist training before being posted in December 1944 to No. 622 Squadron, Royal Air Force. Part of Bomber Command, the squadron flew the four-engine Avro Lancaster heavy bomber.

Bacon flew a full tour with No. 622 Squadron and in February 1945 was posted to No. 7 Squadron, a specialist Pathfinder squadron.

Like Bacon, many of the crews of Pathfinder squadrons were highly experienced airmen, and Bacon himself had flown more than 40 missions over Germany.

On 18 March the Lancaster in which Bacon was pilot was badly damaged during a raid and caught fire. Bacon pleaded with his crew to bail out, but they were determined to stick together; fortunately, their Lancaster pulled through and returned home safely.

Two days later, returning from a raid on Recklinghausen in Germany, the Lancaster was again badly damaged and caught fire over Zuid Belevand in Holland.

Watching the bomber from the ground was a group of British commandos from the 4th Commando Brigade. They saw Bacon’s bomber on fire and losing altitude. Bacon managed to control the aircraft long enough to avoid crashing into a town, before the engine exploded and the Lancaster dove into a field. The fire was immense, and Bacon and each of his six British crewmates were killed. He was 21 years old.

The bodies were later recovered by the commandos and all seven crewmembers were buried at the scene, next to the wreckage of their aircraft. They were later reburied in the Bergen-op-Zoom War Cemetery in the Netherlands.

One of the British commandos found on Bacon’s body a letter from Bacon’s mother and wrote to the address to alert Bacon’s family to his fate. In doing so he added that the townsfolk:
highly appreciate the great sacrifice which the gallant crew made, and were caring for the graves of the men who sacrificed their lives, that their town might be saved.

Bacon’s name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with around 40,000 other 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 Flying Officer Lindsay Page Bacon, 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