The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (415066) Flight Sergeant Thomas Edward Bent, 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 Craig Berrelle, the story for this day was on (415066) Flight Sergeant Thomas Edward Bent, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

415066 Flight Sergeant Thomas Edward Bent, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
KIA 30 July 1943
Photograph: UK0079

Story delivered 29 May 2016

Today we pay tribute to Flight Sergeant Thomas Edward Bent, who was killed on active service during the Second World War.

Born in Collie, Western Australia, on 11 September 1921, Thomas Edward Bent was the son of Edwin Thomas Bent and Gladys Juanita Bent.

Bent enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 23 June 1941, and commenced training as an air gunner. After his initial training in Australia he embarked for overseas service. 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 Royal Air Force squadrons or Australian squadrons based in Britain throughout the course of the war.

On arriving in Britain Bent was posted to No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force. This squadron would become the most highly decorated Australian squadron in Bomber Command, and the one that suffered the most casualties. Flying twin-engine Vickers Wellington medium bombers and four-engine Avro Lancaster heavy bombers, the squadron lost more than 1,000 men: Australian, British, Canadian, New Zealander, and South African. Almost 600 Australians from No. 460 Squadron are listed here on the Roll of Honour.

During a bombing raid on Stettin, Germany, in April 1943, the Lancaster in which Bent was the tail gunner was severely damaged. Flying over the Baltic Sea, the aircraft was repeatedly hit by fire from an armed ship; one engine was put out of action, the tail was damaged, and a shell penetrated the bomb bay, exploding among the incendiaries. Despite the damage, the pilot and navigator managed to get back to England for a safe landing, after which the pilot collapsed at the controls. Remarkably, only the navigator, Flying Officer Charles Anderson, was wounded, but he soon returned to duty with the rest of the crew.

On the night of 29 July 1943, 24 Lancasters from No. 460 Squadron were taking part in large bombing raid. As part of the battle of Hamburg, known as Operation Gomorrah, the raid was part of a bombing offensive by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force. It began on 24 July and lasted eight days and seven nights.

The Lancaster in which Bent was flying was shot down over Germany, crashing into Hamburg. Bent and all six of his crewmates – fellow Australians Pilot Officer Herbert Furhmann, Flying Officer Charles Anderson, Pilot Officer Stuart Nicholson Scott, and Flight Sergeant Arthur William Howard Gliddon, and British crewmates Sergeant Donald Woods and Sergeant John Doyle – were killed.
Only Doyle’s body was recovered from the crash site; he is buried in the British and Commonwealth War Cemetery in Becklingen, Germany.

Flight Sergeant Thomas Bent was 21 years old. With no known grave, he is commemorated upon the Air Forces Memorial overlooking the River Thames. The Runnymede memorial lists all the missing British and Commonwealth airmen.

Bent’s name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War. His photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection. Bent is to the far left in the mess of Royal Air Force Station Breighton.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Flight Sergeant Thomas Edward Bent, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Military History Section