LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Allen Leonard CHEATLE
Service No: 432305
Born: Bankstown NSW, 11 July 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 5 December 1942
Unit: No. 1667 Conversion Unit (RAF), RAF Station Sandtoft
Died: Injuries from an Aircraft Accident (loss of No. 1667 Conversion Unit Halifax aircraft EB190 on 25 July 1944), England, 25 July 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Harrogate (Stonefall) Cemetery, Yorkshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Noel Rodney and Mabel Ruth Cheatle, of Bankstown, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 120, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Brother of Sergeant Raey Hilton Cheatle (432755)
At 0145 hours on 25 July 1944, Halifax EB190 took off from Sandtoft detailed to carry out a non-operational practice night circuits and landings. Two minutes later at a height of about 400 feet, the aircraft did a diving turn to starboard and crashed about two miles from the airfield, just inside the border with Yorkshire, and about 5 miles north east from Doncaster. Four of the crew members were killed and four, two fatally, were injured. An Inquiry into the accident found that “the starboard inner engine failed due to the inlet valve of No 2 cylinder breaking and the starboard outer diving had no power due to mishandling. The Pilot was unable to control the aircraft with only the two port engines working during the initial stages of a climb from take-off.”
The crew members of EB190 were:
Flight Sergeant Allen Leonard Cheatle (432305) (Wireless Air Gunner) Fatally injured: Died: 25 July 1944
Pilot Officer Sinclair Mackay Laird (177512) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant John Gerard McLeod (1101950) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Anthony Miles Salter (1890999) (RAFVR) (Second Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Bryan Wallis Henshall Stalvies (172642) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Dennis George Edward Wilkins (1601075) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber) Fatally injured: Died: 25 July 1944
Sergeant J M Wishart (640945) (RAF) (Rear Gunner) Injured
Sergeant E G Woodward (1868328) (RAFVR) (Mid upper Gunner) Injured
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, 166/7/577