Studio portrait of 422468 Flying Officer John Joseph Egan DFC, No. 460 Squadron RAAF. Egan, born ...

Studio portrait of 422468 Flying Officer John Joseph Egan DFC, No. 460 Squadron RAAF. Egan, born at Glebe, NSW, on 30 October 1923, enlisted on 22 May 1942 at Bankstown and commenced his training at 2 Initial Training School at Bankstown three days later. He continued training as an air gunner at Parkes, Port Pirie and Ascot Vale during 1942 before embarking for overseas service on 15 January 1943 from Melbourne aboard USS ‘Westpoint’, arriving in San Francisco and travelling across America to board the ‘Queen Elizabeth’ at New York, bound for Gourock, Scotland. He arrived at Bournemouth on 11 March 1943 and commenced his operational training at 17 Operational Training Unit (17 OTU) at Lichfield on 27 April 1943. His training was completed in early August whereupon he was posted to No. 460 Squadron, RAAF, Binbrook and was flying his first raid three days later aboard a Lancaster on 9 August, against Mannheim. On 11 November 1943, having already completed 13 operational sorties over Germany, Egan was transferred to the newly formed 626 Squadron, RAF, which was being brought up to strength with postings from established squadrons. He completed a further 13 operations with this squadron, flying eight missions to Berlin and completing his first Tour with 183.45 hours flown. On two of these Berlin missions (on 26 November and 2 December 1943), his Lancaster was forced to abort the mission with one engine out. After a two month period of night bomber training at 27 OTU (Lichfield), on Wellingtons ICs from February to April 1944, he returned to 460 Squadron and commenced his second Tour on 22 May 1944. A feature of his second Tour was that the majority of the 20 missions were flown against German targets in France, including an attack on St Martin de Varreville in support of the D-Day landings on 5 June 1944. The raid supported the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment and 377th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion’s assault on a German heavy artillery battery which was located at St Martin and controlled the exits from Utah Beach. Ten such coastal artillery batteries were bombed on that night, an operation involving 1,012 bombers which dropped 5,000 tons of bombs – the most dropped on one night to that point in the war. On 16 August 1944, Flying Officer Egan was recommended for the Distinguished Flying Cross, being described by Wing Commander J K Douglas as ‘always showing great willingness to participate in any operation. At all times he has displayed great courage and devotions to duty. … His splendid co-operation has materially contributed to the success of his crew, and by his strong sense of purpose and resource he has gained their admiration’. Egan’s final mission was on 17 September 1944 against Rheine airfield at Arnhem in support of Operation ‘Market Garden’. He embarked for Australia aboard the ‘Dominion Monarch’ on 16 January 1944, arriving in Australia on 21 February. He was discharged on 8 November 1945.