The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (418117) Flight Sergeant Joseph Patrick Holian, No. 521 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (418117) Flight Sergeant Joseph Patrick Holian, No. 521 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

418117 Flight Sergeant Joseph Patrick Holian, No. 521 Squadron, Royal Air Force
KIA 7 February 1945
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 14 March 2016

Today we pay tribute to Flight Sergeant Joseph Patrick Holian, who was killed on active service with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

Born in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray on 17 January 1917, Joseph Holian was the son of James and Elizabeth Holian of Yarraville. He was educated at St Monica’s Primary School in Footscray, and later at Footscray Technical College. A carpenter and cabinet maker by trade, Holian worked for six years at Johnston’s Furniture in Fitzroy, and at Sunshine Cabinet Work. A keen sportsman, he was an amateur runner with the Footscray Harriers athletics club, and was also interested in boxing.

At the time of his enlistment in the Royal Australian Air Force on 25 April 1942, Holian had been working as an explosives chemist at the Imperial Chemical Industries of Australia, a munitions factory at Deer Park in Melbourne’s west.

A keen hobby of Holian’s was wireless operating – a skill that he would pursue in the service of his nation, as upon enlistment in the RAAF he was trained as an air wireless operator.

In January 1943 he embarked for overseas service to Canada for further training, before going on to Britain. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Holian was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers, who joined squadrons based in Britain throughout the course of the war.

Arriving in Britain in May 1944, Holian undertook further specialist training and in October was posted to No. 521 Squadron, Royal Air Force. A meteorological observation unit within RAF Coastal Command, No. 521 Squadron were equipped with a variety of aircraft.

On 7 February 1945 Holian was wireless operator aboard a twin-engine Lockheed Hudson light bomber undertaking a regular meteorological sortie. During the flight, somewhere off the Norwegian coast, the weather deteriorated. Holian’s plane sent an SOS, but nothing further was heard or seen of the aircraft. All six crewmates were declared killed in action.

Joseph Holian was 28 years old. His body was not recovered, and his name is listed alongside those of his crewmates upon the Air Forces Memorial overlooking the River Thames. The Runnymede memorial lists all British and Commonwealth airmen with no known grave.

Holian’s name is also listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among around 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 Flight Sergeant Joseph Patrick Holian, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section