Deaths of personnel of 462 Squadron RAAF, 205 Group, Middle East Command:-

– listed by date of death (from 05 September 1942 to March 1944);
– name, rank and Service Number, Air Force; and air crew position or ground crew trade;
– an aircraft serial number and pilot indicate loss of aircraft, with death of some or all of that crew;
– n. a. (= not applicable), i.e. death by ground accident, misadventure, sickness, or other;
– grave reference shows grave location at the relevant named Cemetery;
– Memorial reference shows name location on the Memorial.
(Please note that variations occur between various sources in relation to some the above information.)

Reference Sources:-
National Archives of Australia (Series A9186 Unit History of 462 Squadron Oct 1942 to Sept 1945);
Australian War Memorial; Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC); TNA UK;
462 Squadron RAAF Second World War Fatalities, by Alan Storr;
To See the Dawn Again; A History of 462 Squadron, RAAF by Mark Lax & Leon Kane-Maguire.
Please refer to Acknowledgements for additional reference details.

Soon after the detachments of 10 Squadron and 76 Squadron had arrived in the Middle East in July 1942, 10 Squadron merged with non-operational 227 Squadron; and 76 Squadron merged with non-operational 454 Squadron, both mergers for aircraft servicing purposes.
6 September 1942, at Fayid, Egypt, 462 Squadron was officially formed by the combination of 10/227 Squadron, and 76/454 Squadron, with variations of the exact date recorded by various authors and websites (reference sources listed above).

BRYAN Crew - not listed in Storr's Book.
BRYAN Crew - Lax & Kane-Maguire's book, as crew from 76 Squadron, which took off in Halifax W.1144 "Q" on the evening of 05 September 1942; hit by flak, in the 2nd wave of aircraft.
HACKING Crew - In Storr's book, this crew had been posted to 462 Squadron from 227 Squadron, and were on a 462 Squadron Op on the evening of 6 September 1942, to bomb Heraklion Drome, Crete. After their aircraft was hit by flak, two of the crew baled and evaded capture and returned to Egypt; a third who baled became a PoW; and three (HACKING, CARSON and PORRITT) were found dead in the wreckage.
HACKING Crew - in Lax & Kane-Maguire's book, also listed as a crew of 227 Squadron, flying a Halifax of 10 Squadron, but on the night of 5 September 1942; also hit by flak, in the 3rd wave of aircraft.
The Australian WW2 Nominal Roll (RAAF) entry records CARSON's death on 6 September 1942, of 227 Squadron.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists him as Royal Australian Air Force, but without a Squadron.
CWGC lists HACKING as Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 227 Squadron; and PORRITT as Royal Canadian Air Force, 227 (RAF) Squadron.

From information now sourced from September ORB for 76/454 Squadron, and September ORB for 10/227 Squadron, both crews were on the same Op on the late afternoon of 5 September 1942, to bomb Heraklion Aerodrome, Crete, with 6 aircraft tasked from each Squadron - BRYAN and Crew took off at 1556 on 05 September, as one of six crews from 76/454 Squadron; and HACKING and Crew and took off at 1605, as one of six crews from 10/227 Squadron.
Note the difference in dates of death for members of the 2 crews as recorded by the CWGC - BRYAN and POTTS on 05 September 1942, but HACKING, CARSON and PORRITT on 06 September 1942. These two crews may be regarded as the first deaths recorded by 462 Squadron.

With reference to the GOLDSTON Crew, the CWGC have the 11 November 1942 as the date of death for Pilot GOLDSTON and R/AG STEER, but 10 November 1942 for MU/AG SPENCER. The crew took off from Fayid at 2037 on 10 November 1942, but failed to return; the other 4 aircraft landed safely at Fayid between 0320 and 0338 on the 11 November.

20 April 1943 (12 deaths) and 20 November 1943 (11 deaths) were the two worst days for ground crew losses for 462 Squadron, 205 Group, both events similarly occurring during the "bombing up" of an aircraft scheduled for Ops on those nights.

12 October 1943 was the worst day for loss of air crew from Ops for 462 Squadron, 205 Group, with the deaths of 12 aircrew based at Terria. On the evening of 11/12 October, eight aircraft from 462 Squadron were detailed to attack Maritza Aerodrome Rhodes. They took off between 2040 and 2054 hours on the evening of 11 October, with one early return at midnight with engine trouble. Six aircraft landed back at Terria between 0440 and 0525 hours on 12 October. The HALL Crew failed to return – all 6 of the crew killed, with no known graves.
On the evening of the 12/13 October, 5 aircraft were again tasked to attack Maritza Aerodrome, with the aircraft taking off between 2341 and 2348 on 12 October. The MARSH Crew crashed soon after take-off, and all 6 of the crew were killed. The other four aircraft and crews returned safely to Terria, and landed between 0742 and 0821 on 13 October.

15/16 March 1944 - loss of the LAWSON Crew, who had served with 462 Squadron from mid November 1943, at both Terria and El Adem. In late February 1944, they had relocated to Italy with 462 Squadron, which was then renamed 614 Squadron in early March. The crew was lost without trace, and their names are recorded by the CWGC under 614 Squadron, with dates of deaths as 15 March or 16 March 1944.

Deceased RAAF members also have their names listed in the Commemorative Area at the Australian War Memorial:-
BAXENDALE, DECLERCK, FREEMAN, and A A SCOTT in the Roll of Honour for 462 Squadron, Panel 109; CARSON in Panel 120 with names from 227 Squadron.

More details may be viewed by following the blue links to crew pages.
This is an ongoing project, and new pages will be created, when more information has been located.
Please make contact if you are able to contribute to this site by supplying:-
photos of any of the 462 Squadron's headstones at the named cemeteries; or
photos of names on the Alamein Memorial in Egypt; or
photos of any of the named personnel, or information about them;
corrections to information listed below (please also advise your reference source).