The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (409923) Flight Sergeant William Russell Jager, No. 15 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 (409923) Flight Sergeant William Russell Jager, No. 15 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

409923 Flight Sergeant William Russell Jager, No. 15 Squadron, Royal Air Force
Killed in flying battle 21 January 1944

Today we remember and pay tribute to Flight Sergeant William Russell Jager.

Known as “Bill”, William Jager was born on 4 June 1918 in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury to Ernest and Florence Jager.

As a boy, he attended Thornbury State School, then Collingwood Technical School before going on to work as a butcher.

In July 1941, Jager enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force and began training as an air bomber. Just under a year later, he embarked for overseas service. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Jager was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who, throughout the course of the war, joined Royal Air Force squadrons or Australian squadrons based in Britain.

Arriving in Britain, Jager undertook further specialist training before being posted to No. 15 Squadron, Royal Air Force. Equipped with the four-engined Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, No. 15 Squadron was part of the RAF’s Bomber Command.

On the night of 21 January 1941, the Lancaster in which Jager was a crewmember took part in a raid on Magdeburg in Germany. During the raid, Jager’s Lancaster was shot down and crashed near the village of Wörmlitz, several kilometres west of Magdeburg.

Jager, who was 25 years old, and all six of his fellow British crewmates were killed in action.

Today, Jager is commemorated on the Air Forces Memorial overlooking the River Thames at Runnymede. The memorial lists all the missing British and Commonwealth airmen with no known grave.

His name is also 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 beside the Pool of Reflection.

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

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section