LEST WE FORGET

Flight Sergeant Roy William DOWLING

Service No: 418647
Born: Ballarat VIC, 21 January 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 29 May 1942
Unit: No. 15 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit (RAF), RAF Station Babdown Farm
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 15 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit Oxford aircraft NM306), Gloucestershire, 12 February 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Bath (Haycombe) Cemetery, Somerset
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Roy Milton Dowling and Elizabeth Jane Ivey Dowling, of Albert Park, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: South Melbourne VIC
Remembered: Panel 121, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT

At 0930 hours on 12 February 1944, Oxford NM306 took off from Babdown Farm detailed to carry out a short cross-country flight for the purpose of radio and wireless telegraph training. The aircraft crashed at about 1100 hours at Little Somerford, Gloucester when the aircraft struck the ground at high speed with its starboard main plane, and both the crew members were killed. Eye witnesses heard the roar of aircraft engines and saw the aircraft appearing from cloud. It turned completely upside down, then rolled over to the left a little more than half way. It then dived down with the right wing down on a fairly steep angle, with the undercarriage fully extended. The main cause of the accident was considered to be loss of control by the pilot.

The crew members of NM306 were:

Flight Sergeant Roy William Dowling (418647) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer William Herbert Nettleton (160604) (RAFVR) (Navigator Wireless)

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, 166/10/184

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