Operation: Scramble

Date: 18th January 1942 (Sunday)

Unit: No. 488 Squadron (motto: Ka ngarue ratau - 'We shake them')

Type: Buffalo I

Serial: W8141

Code: NF-?

Base: RAF Kallang, Singapore

Location: Singapore Strait

Pilot: P/O. Ernest Wilkin Cox NZ/41881 RNZAF Age 22. Missing - believed killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

Taking off at 11:45 hrs with others from the squadron to intercept a raid by Japanese fighters. Climbed up to 16,000 ft to get above the Japanese.

P/O. Cox was last seen at about 12:30 hrs diving through clouds and into the Singapore Strait.

Above: Kallang, Singapore L-R: RAF P/O. Peter Gifford, Sgt. Jack Burton, P/O. Tony Cox, Sgt. Eddie Kuhn and Sgt. Dereck Charters

Burial details:

P/O. Ernest Wilkin Cox. Singapore Memoriał. Column 421. Born on the 27th November 1919. Educated at Christ's College, Christchurch and Canterbury University College. Worked as a clerk for Frank Graham and Sons accounts of Christchurch. Enlisted at Levin on the 09th February 1941. Pilot badge awarded on the 26th July 1941 and commissioned. Joined 488 squadron in September 1941. Son of Alan Douglas Cox (died 06th May 1965, age 79) and Heather Maxwell Cox (née Campbell - died 05th December 1934, age 36) of Cambridge, New Zealand.

Above: L-R: Rear; W.V Eunson, John Badcock NZ411004 ✞, Thomas Layton Bowker NZ.405366 ✞, William Arthur Fergie NZ/41891 ✞, Charles Dudley Dobson NZ/41980 ✞, H.W Millard, F.S Penman, V.E Meaclam, George Alister Hutt NZ/41914 ✞, CJ Fraser.

Centre; John Wynne Chapman NZ/41978 ✞, James Alexander Froggatt NZ/41510, O.R Cooper, Donald Louis Clow NZ/41977, Alexander Gray Craig NZ/41882 ✞, Vincent Patrick Cummock NZ/41574 ✞ , Sydney Harold Manning NZ/41921, W.R King, H.J Lorimer, B.D Stringer, W. Kennedy, F.S Johnstone, Allan James MacGregor NZ/41920 ✞.

Front; W.J Barnes, Joseph Stanley Bergin NZ/402533 ✞, Ernest Wilkin Cox NZ/41881 ✞, F.W Davidson, Alexander Leslie Ellis NZ/41887 ✞ , J.N Williams, S.G Horner, Walter James Greenhalgh NZ/41984, W.J.N McIntosh.

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this crew with thanks to the extensive research by Errol Martyn and his publications: “For Your Tomorrow Vols. 1-3”, New Zealand Cenotaph, Weekly News of New Zealand, Air Museum of New Zealand, Museum of Transport and Technology, Auckland, National Archive.

Other sources as quoted below:

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember them. - Laurence Binyon
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