Service No: ---423801
Born: ---Goulburn NSW, 19 July 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: ----18 July 1942
Unit:--- No. 467 Squadron, RAF Station Waddington, Lincolnshire
Died: ---Air Operations: (No. 467 Squadron Lancaster aircraft PD231), Germany, 16 March 1945, Aged ---22 Years
Buried:---- Durnbach War Cemetery, Bad Tolz, Bayern, Germany
Schooling---Canberra Grammar School
Occupation---Public servant
Next of Kin:--- Ernest Milton Margules and Lillian Sarah Elizabeth Margules.
Wife--- Zoe Margules of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Burial Place---Durnbach War Cemetery, Bad Tolz, Bayern, Germany.
Parents--- Ernest Milton and Lillian Sarah Elizabeth Margules.
Last Unit--- No. 467 Squadron (RAAF), Service No. 423801
Remembered: Panel 111, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Goulburn-Mulwaree Honour Roll 1939-1972, Goulburn NSW
In south-eastern Germany, but without direct relevance to the Russian campaign, Bomber Command on 16th-17th March attacked both Nuremberg (for the eighth time) and Wurzburg (for the first time). Sixteen RAAF Lancasters from Binbrook went to Nuremberg and 33 from Waddington bombed Wurzburg, one crew failing to return from each raid; both attacks were successful. These raids in Bavaria were of importance to the transportation plan and reflected Bomber Command opinion that as the Wehrmacht retreated into Germany strategic and tactical threads of the bombing offensive must become more closely interwoven than ever before. Natural selection and the factor that heavier bomb-loads could be carried on shorter journeys had already influenced Harris, however, in seizing the opportunity of improving weather during March to strike with unprecedented fury at transportation targets on the Western front, both by night and day.
Extract from Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Over Europe 1944-1945, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1963 – Page 422
Lancaster PD231 took off from RAF Waddington at 1746 hours on the night of 16 March 1945 to bomb Wurzburg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Sixteen aircraft from the Squadron took part in the raid and one of these PD231 failed to return. Post war it was established that the aircraft crashed in a wood near the village of
Aufstettin, which is about 30 kms south of Wurzburg, Germany. Six of the crew members were killed and one became a Prisoner of War.
The crew members of PD231 were:
Sergeant B A Davies (1898607) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) PoW
Sergeant Thomas Helstrip (1594806) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant James Love Isles (424866) (Bomb Aimer)
Warrant Officer Maxwell Ernest Margules (423801) (Wireless Operator Air)
Flying Officer George Moses (432534) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Robert William Henry Smith (1603454) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Edwin William Thomas (410180) (Pilot)
No. 460 Squadron lost Lancaster PB816 (Flying Officer Vernon James Hedley (409303) (Pilot)) in the attack on Nurnberg on 16 March 1945.
Mission to Wurzburg. 2. Took off from RAF Waddington at 1746. Crashed, when roughly five minutes flying time from the target, in a wood some 500 meters SW of Aufstetten and 4 km NE of the small town of Rottingen and 7 km NNW from Creylingen. Those who died are buried in Durnbach War Cemetery.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/27/839
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line
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Margules was a student at Canberra Grammar during the 1930s and after completing his schooling he worked for the Department of Interior. He was in the first year of an Arts degree at Canberra University College when he enlisted in the RAAF in July 1942. Margules was sent to Canada under the Empire Air Training Scheme and while there he married in July 1943. He was then sent to Britain and joined 467 Squadron, a RAAF squadron flying Lancaster bombers which was attached to Bomber Command. He was a crew member in a Lancaster bomber (PD.231) involved in a raid on Wurzburg, Germany on the night of 16 March 1945 when it was seen to be on fire approaching the village of Aufstetten, south of Wurzburg. The plane crashed, killing the crew. Margules was buried in a collective grave at Durnbach War Cemetery in Germany.