Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Known as “Jimmy”, Charles James Martin was born on 16 March 1915 in Wagga Wagga, son of Richard Gordon Martin.

Jimmy first joined the Air Force Reserve on 11 November 1940 and at the time was living in Brookong Avenue in Wagga Wagga. Jimmy then went on to enlist in the RAAF on 16 August 1941 at age 26 years, Service Number 413219. He was single and a Storekeeper.

He was awarded his Flying Badge on 15 May 1942 and left Sydney for the UK on 24 August 1942 to serve as part of the RAAF forces with the RAF. He was received at the RAAF Personnel Reception Centre in the UK on 18 November 1942.

On 2 February 1943 Jimmy was posted to No 15 (Pilot) Advanced Training Unit at Ramsbury.

Ramsbury is a small village in county Wiltshire about 12 miles south of Swindon. The Ramsbury airfield was constructed in mid-1941 about half a mile south of the village. The airfield was initially used as an RAF training unit teaching pilots the skills needed to control multi-engined aircraft. The Unit was equipped with Airspeed Oxfords. Large numbers of British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and South African pilots passed through the Ramsbury school. Once pilots had successfully passed their course with No 15 (P) AFU they were moved on to an operational training unit (OTU).

Jimmy was posted to No 14 Operations Training Unit on 23 March 1943. No.14 OTU was formed in April 1940 as part of No. 6 Group RAF Bomber Command. At the time Jimmy was posted to the Unit it was operating from RAF Cottesmore in Rutland in the east midlands of England. No 14 OTU was tasked with training night bomber crews. 

Jimmy’s UK record notes that he had experience flying: DH82; Anson, Oxford, Wellington, Manchester and Lancaster planes.

Once their OTU course was completed, airmen were sent to an operational squadron and on 20 July 1942 Jimmy was appointed to 467 Squadron. On 25 November 1943 he was reposted to 463 Squadron.

No. 463 Squadron was formed in late 1943 from personnel and aircraft allocated from No. 467 Squadron RAAF. The squadron was established at RAF Waddington, in Lincolnshire and equipped with Avro Lancaster bombers. Operating as part of RAF Bomber Command, No. 463 Squadron conducted raids against cities, industrial facilities and military targets in Germany, France and Norway throughout 1944 and until the end of the war in May 1945. Throughout the course of the war, No. 463 Squadron undertook 2,525 sorties, and dropped over 11,000 tons of bombs. Casualties amongst the squadron's aircrew were heavy, and No. 463 had one of the highest casualty rates of any Australian bomber squadron during the war with 78 aircraft lost and 546 personnel killed; of these 225 were Australian.

Jimmy was reported missing presumed dead on 25 February 1944 on an air operation targeting Schweinfurt, Germany.

The operation on Schweinfurt on 24/25 February 1944 was part of what was known as the “Big Week” or ”Operation Argument”. This was a sequence of strategic bombing raids on Europe by RAF Bomber Command and United States Army Air Forces from 20 to 25 February 1944. It was aimed at the German aircraft industry intending to damage the Luftwaffe so badly that the Allies would have air superiority in the forthcoming landings of allied forces on the continent.

Factories in and around Schweinfurt accounted for a significant amount of German ball-bearing production and there had been two previous attempts to destroy these factories. The first attempt was in August 1943 which reduced bearing production by 34% but at the expense of many bombers. The second Schweinfurt raid which took place on 14 October 1943 was also a failure with 13 bombers shot down and 12 bombers damaged so badly that they crashed upon return or had to be scrapped. Another 121 bombers returned with moderate damage.  Although the Schweinfurt factories were badly hit in this second raid, the mission failed to achieve any lasting effect with the production of ball bearings in the factories only halted for six weeks.  

The third operation on the factories was in the February 1944 Big Week missions. On 24 February USAF B-17s bombed the factories during the day and on the night of 24/25 February, the RAF sent in a further 734 aircraft split into two attacks. It was on this mission that Jimmy’s plane was shot down - one of 33 planes the RAF lost that night.

His plane that night was an Avro Lancaster, LM444 JO-D.  Flight Lieutenant Charles James Martin was the pilot and the other crew were:

Sgt J.T. Hollow                                   Air Gunner

Flight Officer R.M.N. Jacombs            Observer

Sgt F.J. Pearson                                 Wireless Operator

Sgt P.R. Wynde                                 Flight Engineer

Flight Sgt C.H. Martin                      Air Gunner

The plane was reportedly hit by flak at 20,000 feet over the target area. When his plane did not return they were reported “Missing Presumed Dead”.

Jimmy is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves’ Durnbach War Cemetery in Germany.

In 2003, Jimmy’s good mate from Wagga Wagga, Reg Bain, a fellow RAAF airman, visited Durnbach Cemetery and paid his final respects to his friend Jimmy. Reg was himself shot down over Germany in October 1944 being the only member of his crew to survive. Coincidentally the rest of Reg’s crew are buried in the same cemetery at Durnbach.