Joslyn Lavarre (Len) HENDERSON

Joslyn Lavarre (Len) HENDERSON Update Details

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HENDERSON, Joslyn Lavarre

Service Number:	433549
Enlisted:	20 April 1943
Last Rank:	Flight Sergeant
Last Unit:	No. 463 Squadron (RAAF)
Born:	Manly, New South Wales, Australia, 31 May 1924
Home Town:	Lidcombe, Auburn, New South Wales
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Not yet discovered
Died:	Night Bombing Raid, Giessen, Germany, Glissen, Germany, North West Europe, 7 December 1944, aged 20 years
Cemetery:	Hanover War Cemetery Plot 5, Row B, Grave 9B Headstone inscription reads: Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven loving memories brother Rod fiance Joan Roll of Honour - Sydney
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, International Bomber Command Centre Memorial, Manly War Memorial NSW, Maryborough No. 3 Wireless Air Gunners' School Memorial Wall

World War 2 Service

20 Apr 1943:	Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Sergeant, 433549, No. 463 Squadron (RAAF), Enlisted at Sydney
20 Apr 1943:	Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Sergeant, 433549
7 Dec 1944:	Involvement Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Sergeant, 433549, No. 463 Squadron (RAAF), Air War NW Europe 1939-45

Help us honour Joslyn Lavarre Henderson's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Carol Foster

Son of George Lavarre Henderson and Katie Hanaeus Henderson of Lidcombe, NSW

Plane was Lancaster PB290 while on air operations over Europe

Biography contributed by Steve Larkins

Joslyn ('known as Len) Lavarre HENDERSON,

433549 Flight Sergeant (Flt Sgt) Joslyn Lavarre Henderson, enlisted in the RAAF on 20th April 1943 in Sydney.

After undertaking training as a Wiresless Operator / Air Gunner he was eventually posted to No. 463 Squadron RAAF based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, in the UK.

Flt Sgt Henderson was serving as Air Gunner aboard Lancaster PB290 JO-K when it took off from RAF Base Waddington on the night of 6/7th December 1944 to bomb the marshalling yards at Giessen, Germany.

Of the nineteen aircraft from the Squadron that took part in the raid, only PB290 failed to return. Flt Sgt Henderson; Sergeant Phillip J Gwynne RAF (Flight Engineer); 419821 Flying Officer (FO) Henry Stanley (Mack) MacMeikan RAAF (Bomb Aimer); 434484 FO Gwynne Thomas RAAF (Wireless Operator Air); 431448 Flt Sgt Richard (Dick) Thurston Hawthorn RAAF (Air Gunner); 429369 FO Richard Rodney (Rod) Young, RAAF (Pilot) and 433194 FO Alan Campbell Bond RAAF (Navigator) were reported as lost on operations.

Following the war, it was later established that the aircraft crashed into woods about 3km north-east of Giessen. At the time of the crash, the remains of FO Young, FO MacMeikan, Flt Sgt Hawthorn and Sgt Gwynne, were recovered and buried in Giessen local cemetery. Later, they were reinterred in the Hanover War Cemetery.

In 2004, German historians found part of the Lancaster's wreckage, and the remains of FO Bond, FO Thomas and Flt Sgt Henderson in a forest near Giessen. Family members of the crew joined representatives from the RAAF and the Australian Embassy in Berlin for a military funeral service for the remaining crewmembers on 13 September 2005.

Compiled from a caption on AWM Image

Virtual
War Memorial
Australia