Flight Lieutenant Herbert Marshall Godsall Military Service Record

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: SITE* Runnymede Memorial Englefield Green, Runnymede Borough, Surrey, England * A structure erected in honor of someone whose remains lie elsewhere.
Surname/tag: Godsall

Flight Lieutenant Herbert Marshall Godsall Military Service Record

Service Numbers:--- Q128738, QX41743, 429427

Enlisted in RAAF:--- 7th March 1942 at Sydney, New South Wales.

Born:--- Toowoomba, Queensland, 30th September 1913

Home Town:---Toowoomba, Queensland.

Martial Status:--- Married

Religion:--- Roman Catholic

Next of kin:--- Wife, Mrs Margaret Mary Godsall, P.O. Box 89, Toowoomba, Queensland.

Civilian Profession:--- Articled Law Clerk / Solicitor.

Final Rank:--- Flight Lieutenant

Last Unit: No. 461 Squadron (RAAF), Sullom Voe Detachment, Shetland Islands, Scotland.

Fate:--- Died in Air Operations whislt in No. 461 Squadron Sunderland aircraft ML735, off the Norwegian Coast, on the 1st October 1944, at the age of 31 Years.

Burial details:--- No known grave - "Known Unto God"

Memorials:--- Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Runnymede Air Forces Memorial:--- Toowoomba Grammar School WW2 Honour Board, Toowoomba Roll of Honour World War 2, Toowoomba WW2 Roll of Honour Book, Toowoomba War Memorial

Unit:

Parents:--- Albert Richard Godsall and Ruth Marshall, married 15th November 1904 in Toowoomba, Queensland.

Wife:--- Mary Margaret Murphy married Herbert on 16th January 1940 in Toowoomba, Queensland.

Roll of Honour:--- Toowoomba, Queensland.

Remembered:--- Panel 256, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK

Remembered:--- Panel 108, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra

Remembered:--- Rathmines Memorial Bowling Club, Rathmines NSW

Details of Last Flight:--- Patrols in Norwegian waters began on 30th September and continued throughout October: A total of 39 independent sweeps and searches in cooperation with naval hunting groups all proved negative, but one Sunderland was lost on 1st October. Flight Lieutenant H M Godsall and crew in Sunderland ML 735 (UT-A) failed to return from a patrol along the Norwegian coast. Nothing further was heard of the missing flying-boat and it was assumed that it was taken by surprise by enemy fighters and shot down.

Extract from Ashworth, N. (Norman) The ANZAC Squadron: A history of No. 461 Squadron RAAF 1942-5, Hesperian Press Victoria Park WA 6100, 1994 – Page 207 17:21, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

Operations from Sullom Voe were partly governed by intelligence from the Norwegian underground. They regularly wirelessed reports of U-boat movements, of departures and arrivals, and this information often determined where the aircraft would fly. Sometimes the patrols were against the Norwegian coast, sometimes they were west beyond the Faroes, sometimes north knocking at the door to the Arctic Circle. They were never less than cold; often they were downright freezing. Number 461's Sunderlands were not adequate for the climate. As always, they were stripped of everything which the crews conceivably could do without. For operations in the Bay of Biscay where cold did not often reach the level a man could not endure in silence, all heating arrangements, along with other non-essentials, had been removed. This made way tor extra equipment, for a heavier petrol load, for more armament, and a greater endurance in the air. The boys accepted this as logical and right and would not have had it any other way, but in the Shetlands and over the bitter seas which surrounded them the crews were suddenly confronted by the fact that cold was affecting their efficiency. Despite the truly incredible amount of clothing they wore they felt naked.

Mere fabric seemed incapable of stopping the cold. Its powers of penetration were remarkable. A sojourn in the Sunderland's toilet however brief was pure torture in the air although not without its humour. The crews entered their aircraft wearing very nearly every item of apparel they possessed. There were times it was almost impossible to walk for it; there were times when it required considerable effort to force the body into the pilot's seat or the turret because the pressure of clothing resisted every movement. But it still didn't stop the cold. When the pilot began to fly the chill would creep into his feet and his legs and they would begin to ache. Before long the ache was just a numbness in his limbs and spine and if he had been called upon to really fly his aircraft, to weave through flak or match the manoeuvres of an enemy fighter, he may have been incapable of doing it. Perhaps that was what happened to Marsh Godsall on the second of October, because he vanished with his crew on that day without an SOS and without trace. The boys looked for Godsall for days but couldn't find a thing. Group knew well there was no hope, but the squadron wanted to search so Group allowed them to. But Group knew, and the boys knew too, that men could not stay alive in that water for long. Life would not last for very many minutes.

Extract from Southall, I.F. (Ivan Francis) (418900) They Shall Not Pass Unseen, Angus and Robertson Sydney NSW, 1956 – Pages 185-6

17:21, 9 May 2022 (UTC)~~The crew members of ML735 were:17:21, 9 May 2022 (UTC)17:21, 9 May 2022 (UTC)17:21, 9 May 2022 (UTC)17:21, 9 May 2022 (UTC)17:21, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

Warrant Officer Patrick Hope Brewin (418247) (Air Gunner) Sergeant John Cottam (1147382) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) Pilot Officer John Colin Cottier (423654) (Wireless Air Gunner) Warrant Officer Percival Richard Criddle (417621) (Wireless Air Gunner) Flight Lieutenant Herbert Marshall Godsall MID (429427) (Pilot) Flying Officer Donald James Jennings (408152) (Second Pilot) Sergeant Francis Reed (619357) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) Warrant Officer Leslie George Remblance (619992) (RAFVR) (Flight Mechanic Engines / Air Gunner) Flight Sergeant George Lindsay Toose (423267) (Wireless Air Gunner) Flying Officer Henry Hume Turnbull MID (418211) (Navigator) Flying Officer Edwin Brand Willis (419103) (First Pilot)^[1]