84 Squadron Deaths in WW1 / WW2
In 1935 a pamphlet was produced by the Royal Air Force and given to every RAF serviceman posted to Iraq for the first time. Page 7 of "An Introduction to Iraq" provided a synopsis of some of the RAF squadrons based in Mesopotamia during the inter-war years, including a brief history of 84 Squadron. At the time of publication (August 1935) the commanding officer of 84 Squadron was Squadron Leader (later Air Chief Marshall) F J Fogarty DFC, AFC, and the squadron was based at RAF Hinaidi.
During the periods that 84 Squadron operated from various RAF Stations in Iraq, forty-six men died in the service of the squadron. Following the British Government policy at that time, the bodies of British Forces personnel who died in Iraq were not returned to the UK for burial but instead were buried locally in one of the British cemeteries. In the case of 84 Squadron, burials were carried out at the Baghdad (North Gate) Cemetery, the Habbaniya War Cemetery, the Ma'Asker Al Raschid RAF Cemetery, the Basra War Cemetery, the Basra (Makina) RAF Cemetery and the Old Muscat Cemetery (the last cemetery not located in Iraq but included here as it was the target destination of a 84 Squadron mission launched from inside Iraq). For 84 Squadron personnel who lost their lives in Iraq but had no known grave, their names were commemorated on the Basra Memorial.
To see full details of the forty-six casualties in Iraq, read this NEWS ITEM on my website.
Enough people have shown interest in the above News Item for me to broaden the remit of my website and produce a detailed analysis of the two hundred and ninety-nine (299) 84 Squadron deaths that have occurred from the date of the squadron's formation in 1917 right up to the official end of WW2 (viz. 31st December 1947).
Before I attach the complete list of names, it is worth noting a few background details to put this figure into context.
Considering that 84 Squadron is the only Royal Air Force squadron still in existence that has spent its entire service history overseas, it is understandable that the bodies and/or commemorations are in fifty (50) cemeteries and memorials, located in many countries, with three of these locations accounting for almost half the total number of deaths. They are:
Singapore Memorial - 97
Basra (Makina) RAF Cemetery - 24
Alamein Memorial - 20
Upon further investigation, it was found that 119 of the total number of 299 deaths occurred in the Far East during WW2 after the men had been taken into captivity as POWs by the Japanese Imperial Army. The longest period of captivity was for LAC Edwin Clement who was captured at Kuching on the 9th Oct 1942 and held in a prisoner-of-war camp for almost three years until his death from an unspecified sickness on the 5th September 1945.
Researching the cause of death for the 97 men of 84 Squadron whose bodies were never recovered and whose names were instead listed on the Singapore Memorial revealed a shocking truth - 54 of them died whilst being transported across Indonesia on one of the many Japanese 'Hell Ships' - their deaths caused by either sickness, execution or drowning as a result of the ship on which they were travelling being sunk by US or British naval vessels and aircraft that were unaware they were killing their own since the Japanese routinely refused to mark their military transport ships when they were carrying POWs.
The breakdown of the 54 deaths by ship is as follows:
Suez Maru (sunk 29 Nov 1943) - 28 (1 man dying the day before the ship put to sea)
Nichinan Maru - 1
Tamahoko Maru (sunk 24th Jun 1944) - 5
Junyo Maru (sunk 18 Sep 1944) - 3
Maros Maru - 15 (see Note below)
Kenzen Maru - 1 (a larger vessel, also named the Kenzen Maru, was sunk on 25th Nov 1943)
Transport 125 (sunk 8 Nov 1944) - 1
Note: As described by Lord Russell in his book, 'The Knights of Bushido', "Eventually, sixty-seven days after she had sailed from Ambon, the 'Maros Maru' reached Sourabaya in Java. Of the six hundred and thirty prisoners who had been on board, only three hundred and twenty five were still alive, or almost alive, for most of them were mere ghosts of their former selves, half-starved, half-demented wrecks of humanity, diseased, dirty and crawling with vermin."
The photograph above shows the full complement of 84 Squadron's Blenheim Mk I bombers in 1940, most likely taken when the squadron was based at RAF Heliopolis in Egypt. The aircraft second from the camera, L1378, went 'Missing In Action' during a bombing raid in support of the Greek III Army Corps against the Italian 9th Army at Koritza in Albania on the 14th November 1940. The two aircraft were part of a detachment of 84 Squadron Blenheims that was sent to Tatoi in Greece. Also MIA on the same mission was 84 Squadron's Blenheim L1389. All six crew members from the two aircraft were listed as 'Missing in Action' with their bodies never recovered. Their names are honoured on the Alamein Memorial.
The following four 'searchable' tables detail each of the 299 deaths of 84 Squadron personnel (WW1 thru WW2 inclusive) in chronological sequence. To name but a few sources I referenced in creating this database, my thanks goes to Malcolm Barrass (RAFWEB - 'Air of Authority' RAF Casualties), Trevor Henshaw (The Sky Their Battlefield), Chris Hobson (Airmen Died in the Grreat War), Wg Cdr C G Jefford (RAF Squadrons), the CWGC database for WW1 and WW2 deaths and the RAFVault website.