Clark, William Leonard John

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Clark, William Leonard John

Date of birth:: November 2nd, 1921 (Brentford-London/Greater London, England)
Date of death:: January 2nd, 1944
Buried on:: Commonwealth War Graves General Cemetery Schoonebeek
Plot: 3. Row: 1. Grave: 735.
Service number:: R/157740
Nationality:: Canadian

Biography

William Leonard John (Jon) Clark was born on 2 November 1921 in Brentford, United Kingdom. He was a son of William and Isabel Annie Clark and brother of the elder sisters Phyllis, Eileen, Joan and younger brothers Jack, Bob, Gordon and Harry. In 1923 the family emigrated to Canada and settled in North Vancouver, British Columbia. William, shortened to Bill, was usually called Jon. He went to school in Lonsdale, following to North Vancouver High School. After graduation he got a job at the Surf Inlet Gold Mines and then went to work at the Boeing Aircraft factory in Sea Island.

On 8th December 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in military service. He went through basic military training of the Royal Canadian Air Force in Edmonton, Alberta. There he met his later fiancée Alice Grosco. He then went through elementary flight training in Lethbridge, Alberta, where he graduated as bomber and earned his wings in January 1943. Immediately he left for England and was for a short period of time stationed at 429 Squadron before getting transferred to the 405th Bomber Squadron. This was a pathfinder squadron, of which the planes were the first above the targets. They had to locate and mark the targets with flares, at which a main bomber force could aim, a tactic which increased the accuracy of the bombingraid. The 405th Squadron, with its motto ‘Ducimus’ (We lead), was part of No.8 (Pathfinder Force) Group. The squadron, also called the 405 (Vancouver) Squadron R.C.A.F., flew with Avro Lancaster Mk III bomber aircraft.

On 2 January 1944, just after midnight Jon, together with his crew, took off from RAF Gransden Lodge, near Cambridge, in the Lancaster JB280 LQ-K. Part of a wave of 473 aircraft to participate in raids on the cities of Berlin, Hamburg, Witten and Duisberg, JB280 was tasked to proceed to Berlin. En route, the aircraft was attacked by a German Messerschmitt Bf110G-4 of the IV.NJG1
Nachtjagdgeschwader. At about 02.10 at low altitude, the Lancaster exploded above the field near Schoonebeek, municipality of Emmen, Drenthe province, the Netherlands. All seven crew, with Jon, were killed. Flight Sergeant William Leonard John (Jon) Clark of the Royal Canadian Air Force was 22 years old. He and his colleague crewmembers are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves section of the Municipal Cemetery in Schoonebeek, Plot 3. Row 1. Coll. grave 735.

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