page_title: John Verdun Newton
section_title: Killed in action, 1944
hierarchical_section_title: John Verdun Newton / War service 1941–44 / Killed in action, 1944
caption_attribution_description: English: A Lancaster Mk III of No. 619 Squadron on a test flight from RAF Coningsby, 14 February 1944. A Lancaster III of No 619 Squadron, based at Coningsby, 14 February 1944.
context_page_description: John Verdun "Jack" Newton was an Australian politician and Royal Australian Air Force officer. While serving with the RAAF in Europe during the Second World War, Newton was elected to the Parliament of Western Australia for the seat of Greenough at the 1943 state election, but was killed in action 55 days later.
  While many other members of Australian parliaments have simultaneously served in wars, Newton's tenure was unusual because he was: both preselected and elected while he was overseas; one of only a few serving members of Australian parliaments to fly on combat operations; neither sworn in, nor able to sit in parliament, and; killed in action while he was an MP.
context_section_description: On 14 January 1944, Newton was the captain of Lancaster B.III, JA905 (squadron code "MG-V"), which was recorded as taking off from Oakington at 16:53. The crew to mark targets for the main bomber force, around Braunschweig (Brunswick), in Lower Saxony. The other crew members were RAF personnel: Flt Lt H. O. Wharmby (second pilot); Sgt W. H. Holmes (flight engineer); F/O A. R. Broadbent (navigator); Flt Sgt D. V. Bunting (bomb aimer); Sgt S. W. Bury (wireless operator/front gunner); P/O F. W. Harding (mid-upper gunner) and; F/O J. N. (Nigel) Richards (rear gunner). (Nigel Richards had partly inspired the main character in Cyril Connolly's pre-war novel The Rock Pool.)
  The raid was to be Allied bombers' first major attack on Braunschweig; the operation called for 498 aircraft from Bomber Command to attack targets that included two Messerschmitt aircraft factories. As a relatively direct route was chosen, the pathfinders were detected by German radar at an early stage of the evening. Under a new tactical system known as Zahme Sau ("Tame Sow"), night fighters were directed at the bombers by Luftgau-Kommando XI (LgK XI; "Air District Command 11") in Hanover.  
  The operation failed, to the point that it was, according to historian Martin Middlebrook, "a minor disaster". A total of 38 Lancasters were lost, including 11 pathfinders – a fact that prevented accurate targeting, and as a result, no damage was done to any of the primary targets.
  JA905 was one of the aircraft that did not return and its entire crew was reported missing. Post-war investigations by the RAF established that JA905 and another Lancaster B.III from 7 Squadron (JA935; "MG-O"), had crashed relatively close to each other, north-west of Braunschweig.  The wreckage of both bombers had been subjected to massive explosions and/or intense fires, which prevented positive identification of either the aircraft or the remains of their crews.
  Later research, by Stefan Ilsemann, has suggested that JA905 was attacked over Schwarmstedt by more than one fighter, which most likely belonged to a locally-based nightfighter unit, NJG 3 – although NJG 2 also claimed four-engined bombers in the same area that evening. The bomber was reportedly damaged several times by the fighters and caught fire; it then "lost height and completed a 180 degree turn", before the pilot/s apparently attempted a crash landing in a field. JA905 – evidently still carrying a full bomb load – descended too rapidly, to make a controlled landing. At about 19:00 the bomber exploded violently as it hit the ground – in a field just inside the town limits of Warmeloh, but nearer to the village of Hope, about four miles (6.5 km) south of Schwarmstedt. According to Ilsemann: "Most of the roofs and windows in the village of Hope were damaged by the blast".
  The crew was of JA905 was  initially buried, along with the wreckage, in the crater caused by the explosion. Following the end of the war, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission exhumed and reinterred their remains at its Hannover War Cemetery.
caption: A Lancaster B.III similar to JA905 "MG-V"
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