LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Colin Frederick ALLEN
Service No: 403890
Born: London, England, 2 June 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 31 March 1941 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 9 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Waddington
Died: Air Operations (No. 9 Squadron Lancaster aircraft W4155), Germany, 17 December 1942, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Frederick and Kate Elizabeth Allen, of Killara, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Killara NSW
Remembered: Panel 118, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1702 hours on the night of 17 December 1942 Lancaster W4155 took off from Waddington to bomb Diepholz, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Post war it was established that the aircraft crashed near the Ohrte to Grafeld road. Ohrte is approximately 28 miles north west of Osnabruck and Grafeld is 2 miles north of Ohrte. Five of the crew members were killed and two became Prisoners of War.
The crew members of W5144 were:
Sergeant Colin Frederick Allen (403890) (Pilot)
Flight Lieutenant Charles Guthrie Shields Bain (118058) (RAF) (Rear Gunner) (No. 9 Squadron Gunnery Leader)
Sergeant H V Brown (1079866) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer) PoW
Sergeant Charles William Dickens (1288309) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Charles Henry Nadin (641908) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Flying Officer Laurence George Newman (116672) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant J M T O’Neill (1576244) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner) PoW
In a later report Sergeant Brown stated “I was first to bale out at 500 feet from the blazing plane which crashed almost immediately. I was captured soon after landing and understood from the Germans that Sergeant Allen was still in the aircraft and killed.”
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, 163/87/309