The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (415467) Flying Officer Harold George Day Dedman, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

Places
Accession Number AWM2018.1.1.105
Collection type Film
Object type Last Post film
Physical description 16:9
Maker Australian War Memorial
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell
Date made 15 April 2018
Access Open
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Description

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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (415467) Flying Officer Harold George Day Dedman, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

Film order form
Speech transcript

415467 Flying Officer Harold George Day Dedman, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
KIA 16 December 1943
Story delivered 15 April 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Flying Officer Harold George Day Dedman.

Born in Fremantle, Western Australia, on 13 May 1916, Harold Dedman was the son of George and Alice Dedman.
Following his education, Harold Dedman trained as a teacher. He married Enid Esther Dedman on 18 December 1937, and by the time war was declared was working at Claremont Central School.

On 6 November 1941, Dedman enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force. He began training as a navigator and bomb aimer, and before long left Australia for overseas service. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Dedman was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who, throughout the course of the war, joined squadrons based in Britain.

After further training in Canada, Dedman arrived in Britain in December 1942. After further specialist training, in June 1943 he was posted to No. 460 Squadron. This would become the most highly decorated Australian squadron in Bomber Command, and the squadron that suffered the highest casualties. Flying twin-engined Vickers Wellingtons medium bombers, and then the four-engined Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, the squadron lost over 1,000 men: Australian, British, Canadians, New Zealanders and South Africans. Almost 600 Australians from 460 Squadron are listed here on the Roll of Honour.

During his time with the squadron Dedman participated in raids on Berlin, Hamburg, and Cologne.
On the night of 16–17 December 1943, Dedman was on his fifteenth operation with the squadron, taking part in a large raid on Berlin.

The night would later become known as Black Thursday, because of the heavy losses suffered by Bomber Command squadrons due to bad weather and enemy action.

During the return flight, the Lancaster in which Dedman was bomb aimer encountered bad weather. Having circled No. 460 Squadron’s home station of Binbrook in heavy fog and low cloud, the aircraft crashed near the village of Market Stainton in Lincolnshire.

Dedman and all six of his crewmates died – fellow Australians Captain Francis Randall, Flight Sergeant William Halstead, Flight Sergeant Charles Howie, Flight Sergeant Reginald Moynagh, Flight Sergeant Harry Peterser, and British crewmate Jack McKenzie.

In a letter home to the families, the commander of No. 460 Squadron wrote that he had lost one of its best crews.
After a funeral on 23 December, the men were buried side by side in the Cambridge City Cemetery.

Harold Dedman was 27 years old.

His is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among almost 40,000 Australians 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 Harold George Day Dedman, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section


  • Video of The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (415467) Flying Officer Harold George Day Dedman, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War. (video)