In Memory Of

CARO, JOHN LEONARD

Service Details
Age:
 25
Date of Birth:
 1919-01-01
Service No:
 79689V
Rank:
 Lieutenant
Unit:
 614 (R.A.F.) Sqdn.
Regiment:
 South African Air Force
Date of Death:
 1944-08-14
Cause of Death:
 Died in Aircraft Accident, Halifax II JN912, while carrying six crew and four Squadron personnel as passengers, ditched in the Gulf of Taranto, 20 miles off Cape Spulico, after the port inner engine caught fire. On hitting the water JN912 nosed over on to its back. The dinghy failed to inflate, but the RAF wireless operator-air gunner and an LAC passenger swam together towards the shore for 19 hours. They were picked up by a fishing boat when within a mile of land. The wireless operator-air gunner died shortly afterwards and is buried at Bari, leaving the LAC as the sole survivor
Commemoration
Grave Reference:
 Panel 17, Column 1.
Cemetery:
 MALTA MEMORIAL
Country:
 Malta
Additional Information
Son of Cyril Gordon and Hilda Caro, of Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa. Born Cape Town. A merchant.