The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (424403) Flight Sergeant Hilton Hardcastle Forden, No. 467 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 , the story for this day was on (424403) Flight Sergeant Hilton Hardcastle Forden, No. 467 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second world War.

424403 Flight Sergeant Hilton Hardcastle Forden, No. 467 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
KIA 4 May 1944

Today we remember and pay tribute to Flight Sergeant Hilton Hardcastle Forden.

Hilton Forden was born on 1 October 1923 in Adelaide to George and Hilda Forden. His father had served in France during the First World War with the 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station, returning home safely and working as a managing director.

The family later moved to New South Wales, and Hilton attended Mowbray House School in Sydney and Newcastle Boys’ High School. He was fond of tennis and swimming, and was a member of his high school’s cadet corps. After leaving school he studied part-time with the Newcastle Business College, taking typing, shorthand, and bookkeeping classes.

Forden was 18 years old, working in Newcastle as a junior clerk, when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 12 September 1942. He trained as an air gunner, and in June 1943 was made sergeant.

On 6 July, Forden embarked for overseas service from Brisbane, arriving in the United Kingdom in August. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, he was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, air gunners, and flight engineers who, throughout the course of the war, joined Royal Air Force squadrons or Australian squadrons based in Britain.

Further specialist training followed in England, and in December he was promoted to flight sergeant. On 10 April 1944 he was posted to No. 467 Squadron, RAAF. As part of Bomber Command, the squadron flew the four-engined Avro Lancaster heavy bomber.

Forden was the air gunner with the crew of an aircraft known as “Naughty Nan”. They were close, and Forden wrote to his family of the great friendship among them. After some technical issues in their early missions, they composed a satirical poem about their aircraft:

“We are the crew of the Naughty Nan
and though we do the best we can
we always seem in trouble’s way
with gremlins at their wicked play.
The engines stop, electrics fail;
we’d do much better with a sail.
The turrets always seem to tire
of going round and never fire.
So it’s out to The Wash and drop the load
to scare the fish in their abode.
Another target, failed to ‘prang’
another bloody boomerang.”

On 3 May, shortly before 10 pm, the crew of Naughty Nan took off for an attack against the village of Mailly-le-Camp. It was believed a German Panzer division was encamped there on its way to the coast.

The night was well-lit, and the Luftwaffe shot down 42 bombers, including Naughty Nan. Having completed its mission, the aircraft was on its way home when it was attacked by an enemy fighter. The aircraft caught fire and the pilot instructed the crew to bale out. Only Flight Sergeants Stanley Jolly and Robert Hunter managed to do so safely.

The plane crashed near the village of Droupt St Marie. Those killed in the crash with Flight Sergeant Forden were Australians Pilot Officer Colin Dickson and Flight Sergeant Oscar Furniss, and British Sergeants Philip Weaver and Horace Skellorn. Flight Sergeant Jolly was helped by a local onto a train and made it back to England, while Flight Sergeant Hunter was cared for by members of the resistance before being taken to hospital with extensive burns. When the Americans liberated the area he was sent back to the United Kingdom.

Five bodies were recovered from the wreckage and interred in communal graves at the Droupt St Marie Cemetery and the St Remy Communal Cemetery. Hilton Forden rests now in the St Remy-sous-Barbuise Churchyard, under the inscription: “His duty fearlessly and nobly done. Ever remembered.” He was 20 years old.

Forden was dearly missed by his family, and though it was probable that he had been killed by the fighter plane before the crash, his father long held onto the hope that his son had somehow survived. For many years George Forden wrote and visited to comfort the families of Hilton’s crewmates, and sent money for their children at Christmas time.

Flight Sergeant Hilton Forden’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 Sergeant Hilton Hardcastle Forden, and all those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Christina Zissis
Editor, Military History Section