The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (413896) Flying Officer Francis Archibald Randall, No. 460 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 Jana Johnson, the story for this day was on (413896) Flying Officer Francis Archibald Randall, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

Due to technical issues this recording is of poor quality and not for public display.

413896 Flying Officer Francis Archibald Randall, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
KIA 16 December 1943
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 8 May 2016

Today we pay tribute to Flying Officer Francis Archibald Randall, who was killed on active service during the Second World War.

Born on 13 June 1922 in Meadowbank, New South Wales, Francis Randall was the son of Francis George Randall and Agnes Mell Randall.

At the time of his enlistment in the Royal Australian Air Force on 13 September 1941 Randall was in his second year of a science degree at Sydney University. He began training as a pilot and before long embarked for overseas service, first to Canada and then to Britain. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme he 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.

On arriving in Britain Randall undertook further specialist training before being posted in July 1943 to No. 460 Squadron, RAAF. This would become the most highly decorated Australian squadron in Bomber Command, and the one that suffered the highest casualties. Flying twin-engine Vickers Wellington medium bombers and the four-engine Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, the squadron lost more than 1,000 Australian, British, Canadian, New Zealander, and South African servicemen. Almost 600 Australians from No. 460 Squadron are listed here on the Roll of Honour.

On the night of 3 September 1943 Randall was piloting a Lancaster on a raid on Berlin when his plane came under attack from several enemy fighters. His aircraft badly damaged he ordered his crew to bail out over the Baltic Sea. Randall survived and made it to Sweden, where after a brief internment he was flown back to England by a secret courier service. Within a month he was flying with his squadron once more.

For his actions during the raid Randall was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. His citation praised “a cool and resourceful pilot whose keenness and determination have set a very fine example”, adding:
"He has completed many sorties and has always endeavoured to press home his attacks with vigour … [and has] displayed courage and skill of a high order."

On returning safely to his squadron, Randall was promoted to flying officer.

On the night of 16 December, having participated in a large raid on Berlin, the Lancaster in which Randall was pilot ran into bad weather on the return flight. In heavy fog and low cloud, he circled No. 460 Squadron’s home station of Binbrook before crashing near the village of Market Stainton in Lincolnshire.

Randall and all six of his crewmates – fellow Australians Flight Sergeant Harry Petersen, Flying Officer Harold Dedman, Flight Sergeant William Halstead, Flight Sergeant Charles Howie, and Flight Sergeant Reginald Moynagh, and British crewmate Jack McKenzie – were all killed in the crash.

In a letter home to the families, the commander of No. 460 Squadron wrote that he had lost one of its best crews. The men were buried side by side in the Cambridge City Cemetery.

Bomber Command squadrons lost so many men during that night’s raid that it became known as “Black Thursday”. It is this operation that features in the Memorial’s Striking by night exhibition in Anzac Hall.

Flying Officer Randall was 21 years old. His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among some 40,000 others 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 Flying Officer Francis Archibald Randall, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section