LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Alan Rothery BREAKSPEAR
Service No: 412374
Born: Kogarah NSW, 25 December 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 19 July 1941
Unit: No. 98 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Dunsfold
Died: Air Operations (No. 98 Squadron Mitchell aircraft FL683), France, 21 September 1943, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Noyellette Communal Cemetery, France
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Percy Charles and Emley Charlesworth Breakspear, of Kogarah, New South Wales, Australia. Optical Engineer
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 21 September 1943 Mitchell FL683 took off from Dunsfold detailed to bomb a synthetic oil production plant at Lens, France. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft was attacked when over the town of Arras and it crashed between the
villages of Noyellette and Wanquentin. The Commanding Officer of No. 98 Squadron was flying next to FL683 when it was hit by cannon shells from a FW190B enemy aircraft and crashed. No one was seen to leave the aircraft.
The crew members of FL683 were:
Flying Officer Arthur George Gordon Atkins (127538) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Alan Rothery Breakspear (412374) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Kenneth Stanley Henry Lawson (1388124) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Samuel Arthur Raymond Tanner (144191) (RAFVR) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/6/277