Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Noel Clement Hopwood was born in Young on 3 March 1922. Noel was a Printer’s Assistant when he enlisted in the RAAF on 19 July 1941 at the age of 19. (Service Number 412448).

After training in Australia he was sent to the UK on 24 August 1942. Disembarking on 18 November 1942 he was assigned to 460 Squadron of Bomber Command.

On his first operational flight on 29 May 1943, Noel bailed out over Germany and was captured. On this operation Noel was the Bomb Aimer on Lancaster “T” with the other members of the crew being:

Sgt R. O. Vaughan (RAF) Pilot

Sgt D. Lundie (RAAF) Navigator

Sgt D.A. Thomas (RAF) Wireless Operator

Sgt L.F. Day (RAF) Flight Engineer

Sgt J.C. Cornish (RCAF) Mid Upper Gunner

Sgt A. Gordon (RAAF) Rear Gunner

The Lancaster was on a bombing raid to Wuppertal and was caught by the searchlights and received heavy flack which put the plane into a spin. According to statements given by the crew members the pilot gave the order to “Prepare to Abandon Aircraft” when the plane went into the spin. The pilot subsequently regained control of the plane and they continued on their bombing run. When the pilot gave the order “Running Up On Target: Bomb Doors Open” there was no response from the Noel, the Bomb Aimer. The Flight Engineer investigated and found he had ejected through the escape hatch. The crew completed the bombing raid with the pilot being able to launch the bombs by alternate means and returned to base at Binbrook.

The subsequent preliminary inquiry held on the plane’s return determined that the Bomb Aimer may not have heard the first two words “Prepare to” and only heard “Abandon Aircraft”. The Wing Commander recommended to the Air Ministry that they revise protocols to ensure that the orders for preparing to abandon aircraft and for abandoning aircraft could not be confused. He recommended that the order “Stand By To Bale” be used to prepare crew for the possibility of having to eject and that “Abandon Aircraft” order then used to order the evacuation of the aircraft.

On parachuting out, Noel landed in high tension cables and ended up hanging ~ 20 feet above the ground. He was able to release himself and fall to the ground however he was not able to remove his parachute from the lines. He was captured a few hours later near Dusseldorf by the Luftwaffe. Whilst he was captured on 30 May 1943, notification that he was alive and a POW was not received until 3 December 1943.

Noel’s POW number was 34 and he was interred in a number of POW camps during his two years as a POW:

Dulag Luft                                            2/6/43-8/6/43

Stalag Luft VI                                      12/6/42-11/7/43

Stalag 357 Thorne                            13/7/44-2/8/44

Stalag 357 Fallingbostel                 5/8/44-April 1945

Noel was repatriated to the UK at the end of the war on 24 April 1945. His debrief report on his time as a POW reports indicates that conditions were tolerable for the main but the last 8 months at Fallingbostel had been very bad.

Stalag 357 was part of a large complex of camps based around German Army barracks on the outskirts of Fallingbostel. In 1935 the German Army evicted the population of twenty-five villages between Fallingbostel and Bergen to make a large troop barracks and training complex for their expanding army.  With the outbreak of war, the huts used by the workers who had constructed the barracks were converted to become Stalag XI B and Stalag 357.

The first POWs to arrive at these camps were Polish but as the German army moved west, over 40,000 POWs were registered in one or other of the Fallingbostel camps. In 1941, with the Germans advancing into Russia, over 12,000 Russian POWs were sent to Fallingbostel. Facilities were non- existent and the POWs were largely left to fend for themselves. Reportedly over half of the POWs died within a year. There was a continual increase in POWs moved into the camps and by 1944 there were 96,000 registered POWs from numerous countries in the Fallingbostel camps.

In July 1944 RAF NCOs, including Noel Hopwood, were moved from Stalag Luft 6 to Stalag 357 in Thorn in Poland. The following month, Stalag 357 moved from Thorn to a new camp in Fallingbostel which had been constructed by Italian POWs. In March 1945 a further 3,000 RAF POWs evacuated from Stalag Luft 4 arrived in Fallingbostel. They were divided between Stalag 357 and Stalag XIB.

In April 1945 the Germans were planning to relocate the Stalag 357 POWs again and some POWs were marched out where they encountered advancing allied forces. The remaining POWs were liberated on 16 April 1945 by British troops. 

Noel was returned to Australia on 18 June 1945 and discharged from service on 16 November 1945.

Baling from the aircraft on that night in May 1943, probably ultimately saved Noel’s life with most of his crew losing their life over The Netherlands only a couple of weeks later. The same crew, joined by Charles William YOUNG as the Bomb Aimer, were flying Lancaster W4316 AR ‘Q’ on a bombing raid to Bochum when they were shot down near Grafhorst, The Netherlands, on 13 June 1943. The only survivor was Mid Upper Gunner, J.C. Cornish who became a POW.