The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (406700) Flight Lieutenant William Neil Read, No. 463 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

Places
Accession Number AWM2020.1.1.271
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 27 September 2020
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 Joanne Smedley, the story for this day was on (406700) Flight Lieutenant William Neil Read, No. 463 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

Film order form
Speech transcript

406700 Flight Lieutenant William Neil Read, No. 463 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
KIA 11 May 1944

Today we remember and pay tribute to Flight Lieutenant William Neil Read.

William Read was born on 18 November at Narrogin, Western Australia, to Albert and Sophie Read. His father was a civil servant, and had served in France during the First World War. William had a sister, Eileen, and three brothers: John, Leonard, and Donald.

Read worked as a clerk with Elder Smith & Co wool sellers in Perth, and enlisted with the Royal Australian Air Force on 3 March 1941, aged 19. He went into air crew training and then trained as a wireless operator and air gunner. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme he was one of almost 27,000 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who joined Australian and British squadrons in Britain throughout the course of the war.
After embarking for the Middle East on 11 November 1941, Read underwent further training in Kenya. He flew operations in North Africa with RAAF Squadrons number 14, 52, and 162 – and served with No. 40 Squadron, flying 40 sorties out of Malta. In July 1943 he was sent to Britain, were he underwent further training before being posted to No. 463 Squadron, RAAF, in April 1944.

On the night of 10 May, 31 Lancaster bombers from 463 and 467 Squadrons departed as part of a major raid from RAF Waddington. Their target was the heavily defended railway yards at Lille in France. Flight Lieutenant Read was the wireless operator and air gunner with Lancaster “JO-J”.
Sometime before dawn the aircraft carrying Read was shot down by a Luftwaffe pilot. The bomber crashed into the clay pit of the brickworks just outside the Belgian village of Langemarck, some 30 kilometres north-west of Lille. It was determined that the aircraft had likely exploded in mid-air, and all aboard had died instantly.

Twelve Lancasters were lost on the raid, and 50 airmen were recorded as casualties of the mission.

The villagers at Langemarck held a memorial service for the crew, and the remains were buried in a nearby cemetery. In 1946 the graves were exhumed, and the body of Flight Lieutenant William Read was identified. He was reinterred at the Wevelgem Communal Cemetery in Belgium.

He was sorely missed by his family and friends, who placed in memoriam notices in the newspaper after his death.
Flight Lieutenant William Neil Read’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 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 Lieutenant William Read, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Christina Zissis
Editor, Military History Section


  • Video of The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (406700) Flight Lieutenant William Neil Read, No. 463 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War. (video)