Jack Crane was one of four brothers who went to war and one of three who returned.
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In June 1944, Jack’s brother Bob Crane flew an RAF Stirling bomber known as the Yorkshire Rose in a top-secret mission in Nazi-occupied France when it disappeared with 23 servicemen on board.
Bob, the eldest brother, joined the Air Force while James and Peter joined the Army and Jack followed in his brothers footsteps by joining the Air Force.
“I don’t think Mum was too pleased we all went but I enjoyed what I did in New Guinea,” Jack said.
Jack completed a technical course and was part of the team that would bring out the wounded and fly them down the coast to hospitals in the hope they would recover.
It was very satisfying work, but then the war ended and I came home,
- Jack Crane
Jack said there was nothing like the feeling to come home after war.
But that happiness didn’t last long as Jacks parents received a telegram with the news that his brother was missing.
“The communication back then wasn’t great, especially when trying to get a message between two enemies,” he said.
It took another eight months for Bob Crane to be declared missing, killed in action.
“Bob was probably the cleverest one, he won a scholarship to go to a college in Sydney and he was good in sport but then the war came and he joined up to the army,” Jack said.
Jack said during the war he was able to keep in contact with his brothers by working out where they were and knowing what unit they were in.
“I now know he was doing undercover work but at the time we had no idea,” he said.
British aviation archaeologist Tony Graves recently invited Jack to go to France to show him what he believed was Bob’s final resting place.
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Mr Graves took Jack to the spot near Omaha beach and showed him the remains of the Yorkshire Rose that he has found.
“When your’re standing there in France and you know there are 23 bodies underneath your feet it really strikes home,” he said.
Mr Graves has made enquiries with people who lived a few kilometres away from the crash site.
“A lot of people were saying they saw the plane on fire and that para troopers couldn’t get out and the plane just exploded,” Jack said.
“I think he was shot down in friendly fire but you can’t prove that.”
War is war and truth tends to be the casualty.
- Jack Crane
Jack was able to speak to French bureaucrats but they refused the request to excavate, stating the site was a potential mass grave.
“At first I was angry, but then I just came to accept that answer but my fear is what if they build over it in time, what if they bulldoze through it?” he said.
Jack said he understood there were 23 families also grieving and just wished that everyone could be reunited with their loved ones.
“I do feel some peace of mind about where my brother ended up,” he said.
Jack said that Anzac day tended to bring back memories and, despite not marching, he goes to a service to say a prayer and lay a wreath.
“I don’t know if it helps much but it’s there,” he said.
The Society's Annual Anzac Cemetery walk will be held on Sunday, April 29 where they will honour Jacks brother Private James Crane.
On September 7 James’s 2/33rd battalion waited at Jackson’s Airfield at Port Moresby to be flown to their next destination, a fully-loaded Liberator bomber crashed among the truck carrying the battalion.
“Jim was headed to New Guinea and had just come back from the Middle East when an American plane crashed into them,” Jack said.
Sixty men were killed and 90 injured, a third of the battalion’s fatal casualties for the entire war while Jack was one of the only survivors.