The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (414792) Flying Officer Ernest Gatenby Fletcher, No. 463 Squadron, Royal Australian 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (414792) Flying Officer Ernest Gatenby Fletcher, No. 463 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

414792 Flying Officer Ernest Gatenby Fletcher, No. 463 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
KIA 4 July 1944

Today we remember and pay tribute to Flying Officer Ernest Gatenby Fletcher.

Ernest Fletcher was born on 12 July 1913 in Toowoomba, Queensland, the son of Edwin and Annie Fletcher. Growing up he had an older sister, Mary, and a younger brother, Linley. Their mother died in 1926, and their father, a grazier in Morven, passed away in 1933.

After leaving school, Ernest became station manager of the Ernest Charles Fletcher Estate at Morven, running sheep and cattle. On 9 of April 1936 he married Jessie Wilson. The couple went on to have two sons: John, born in 1937, and Robert, born in 1938.

On 9 November 1941, Fletcher enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force. He trained as an air bomber, before embarking for overseas service from Melbourne on 19 August 1942, arriving in Canada the following month. 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 Australian and British squadrons in Britain throughout the course of the war.
Fletcher underwent months of training in Canada, receiving his badge in April 1943 and being commissioned as a pilot officer the following month. He left for the United Kingdom in May 1943.

Further specialist training followed in England, and that October Fletcher was promoted to flying officer. On 31 March 1944 he was posted to No. 463 Squadron, RAAF. As part of Bomber Command, the squadron flew four-engined Avro Lancaster heavy bombers.

On the night of 4 July 1944, Bomber Command launched a major raid on German flying bomb installations in the limestone caverns and quarries at St Leu D’Esserent in France. The plan was to collapse the roofs of the caverns and disrupt surrounding roads and train tracks.

Fifteen aircraft were committed to the mission by No. 463 Squadron. Flying Officer Fletcher was the bomb aimer on board Lancaster “JO-K”, which took off from the Royal Air Force base at Waddington shortly after 11 pm.

German night fighter resistance was heavy around the target, and Fletcher’s aircraft was shot down, crashing near Lyon-la-Foret, some 80 kilometres west of the target.
Killed in the crash were Flying Officers Noel Webb, Arthur Connor, and Malcolm McLeod, Warrant Officer Launcelot Harrison, Flight Sergeants Archie Gillett and Patrick Dunford, Sergeant Thomas Hendry, and Flying Officer Ernest Fletcher, who was 30 years old.

The bodies of seven of the crew were recovered from the crash site and buried at Marissel French National Cemetery in Beauvais. The eighth crew member was never found.
Ernest’s brother Linley Fletcher also enlisted in the Second World War. He served with No. 43 Squadro, RAAF, becoming Squadron Leader.

Ernest Fletcher left behind a wife and two young sons. In 1993 his son John, driven to desperation by the drought affecting his grazing land, committed suicide.

After the war the remains of Commonwealth servicemen buried in Europe were examined and identified where possible. Three of the crew of Lancaster JO-K could not be identified, including Ernest Fletcher. He was reinterred next to his crewmates, but has no marked grave. His name is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at Runnymede in Surrey.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 others from 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 Ernest Gatenby Fletcher, and all those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Christina Zissis
Editor, Military History Section