// Rabaul Memory
-A Time For Every Purpose Under Heaven
By WGCDR Ross Falconer
Paying their respects
On 5 June 1944 an RNZAF Avenger, NZ 2518 from No.31 Squadron, was shot down in the vicinity of Rabaul with the loss of three aircrew. Those killed were:
FLTLT Charles Gordon Gladstone Prior; FGOFF Rodney Ernest Clayton and W/O Theo Raymond Scarlett.
NZDF records indicate that the crash site was located by the Australian War Graves Unit in 1946, the crews bodies recovered and eventually buried in the New Zealand Military Cemetery at Bourail, New Caledonia.
Further excavation of site
The US Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command Central Identification Laboratory (JPAC CIL/CIL) is an agency originally set up to locate and recover POW but now focuses its efforts on the recovery of US war dead on foreign battlefields.
In 2001, believing that they had discovered a previously unidentified US crash site, a team from JPAC excavated the site and identified a number of skeletal remains, personal effects and other aircraft equipment. These were recovered and transported to the JPAC lab in Hawaii.
Subsequently the aircraft part numbers, some personal items and forensic evidence led to the conclusion that the remains were from NZ 2518.
A prayer
Significant effort was expended attempting to locate any next of kin and thanks to the efforts of the New Zealand Police, the relatives of two of the deceased were located. Chaplain, WGCDR Falconer travelled to Nelson and Napier to meet the relatives and their permission was gained to proceed with the burial of the remains.
CAF AVM Lintott expressed a desire to pay due respect and honour to these remains and for the aircraft artefacts to be gifted to the RNZAF Museum.
The Principal Chaplain (AIR) was tasked to travel to Hawaii to recover these remains with the intent that they should be interred in their graves in Bourail, New Caledonia.
On Wednesday 17th December, Chaplain Falconer was handed the remains at the JPAC laboratories in Hickham US Air Force Base, Hawaii. He conducted a short service and took the opportunity to thank those who cared for our Kiwis with such dignity, professionalism and respect.
The remains were flown home in a returning RNZAF 757.
Burial in Bourail
The team
Taking advantage of the FANC youth exchange flight, on Thursday 8th January, Chaplain Falconer, accompanied by FLTLT Brett Clayton, Mr Graham Goss and Mrs Mary Lou Forrest, conducted a short memorial, interment and thanksgiving service in the New Zealand Military Cemetery in Bourail, New Caledonia.
The French Military and New Zealand Consulate spared no effort in affording the VIPs and the remains of our New Zealand servicemen great respect. Helicopter transport was provided, an honour guard and a number of French returned service personnel and Bourail citizens paid their respects.
The Mayor of Bourail attended the ceremony and invited the guests for a short function in the Bourail town hall.
Coincidences
Mr Graham Goss, a long-time supporter of both the RNZAF and the Brevet Club, was a navigator on the same fateful raid. He trained with the crew and knew them well.
FLT LT Brett Clayton and FGOFF Angus Johnston are the great nephews of the navigator FGOFF Sydney Clayton.
Mrs Mary Lou Forrest is the niece of a pilot killed in the Pacific and whose body was never recovered and whose name is recorded on the memorial wall at Bourail.
Chaplain Ross Falconer’s father also flew Avengers in No. 31 Squadron and on the day of the crash was flying an alternate raid.