LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Alan Gladstone BURT
Service No: 400408
Born: Moonee Ponds VIC, 5 December 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 august 1940
Unit: No. 61 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Woolfox Lodge
Died: Air Operations: (No. 61 Squadron Manchester aircraft L7296), off the English Coast, 31 January 1942, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Walter Oswald and Esther Burt, of Toorak, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Toorak VIC
Remembered: Panel 109, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Flying Officer Burt was a member of an eight man crew of Manchester L7296 which departed Woolfox Lodge at 1852 hours on 31 January 1942 for a bombing raid on Brest. Two fixes were requested from the aircraft on the return journey. The second request was in the form of a distress message and a fix placed the aircraft fifty miles due south of Southampton. Searches next morning to locate the aircraft and crew were unsuccessful. It is assumed that the crew members lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of L7296 were:
Pilot Officer Denys Lowe Atkinson (62694) (RAF)
Squadron Leader Thomas Noel Challoner Burrough DFC (84274) (RAF)
Flying Officer Albert Gladstone Burt (400408) (Observer)
Sergeant Leonard William Dann (929868) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Thomas Alfred Evans (913939) (RAF)
Sergeant Ronald Sidney Jones (645045) (RAF)
Flight Lieutenant Harry Charles Shaw Page DFC (41315) (RAF) (Pilot) Remains recovered and interred at Isles of Scilly
Flight Sergeant Harry Edward Turner (645043) (RAF)
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, 163/24/172