LEST WE FORGET

Wing Commander Alan McDonald BOWMAN DFC & Bar

From Australia serving in the Royal Air Force

Service No: 32138 (RAF)
Born: Kinvarra Park TAS, 18 August 1911
Enlisted in the RAF: 1931
Unit: Western Desert Communication Flight (RAF)
Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC)
Awarded the Bar to the Distinguished Flying Cross (Bar)
Died: Air Operations (Blenheim IV aircraft Z7589), Sudan, 30 November 1941, Aged 30 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Adrian McDonald Bowman and Olive Eileen Bowman, of Deloraine, Tasmania, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Column 239, Alamein Memorial, Egypt
Remembered: Supplementary Panel 12, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT

Wing Commander Bowman was an Australian Cadet trained for the RAF who embarked for the UK on 27 November 1931.

On 30 November 1941, Western Desert Communication Flight Blenheim IV Z7589 was shot down by friendly fire and crashed near Gialo Oasis, Sudan. All four crew members were killed.

The crew members of Z7589 were:

Captain Frederick Christopher Benn (130895) (British Army, Intelligence Corps) (Supernumerary)
Wing Commander Alan McDonald Bowman (32138) (RAF) (Pilot)
Group Captain Cuthbert Joseph Stanley Dearlove (RAF)
Flight Sergeant James Shirley McLaren (654296) (RAF) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)

References:

Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record AWM65, 381
Newton, Dennis A Few of the Few: Australians and the Battle of Britain, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT 2600, 1990

Bibliography:

Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Against Germany and Italy 1939-1943, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1954

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