LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Leonard Douglas HALL
Service No: 415788
Born: Merredin WA, 15 August 1919
Enlisted in the RAAF: 1 February 1942
Unit: No. 30 Squadron, Tadji New Guinea
Died: Air Operations: (No. 30 Squadron Beaufighter aircraft A19-120), Muschu New Guinea, 16 June 1944, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Lae War Cemetery, PNG
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John Minify Hall and Ethel Hall; husband of Lorna Hall, of Tambellup, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Tambellup WA
Remembered: Panel 102, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Remembered: Honour Avenues, Kings Park WA
The squadron continued to cover for PT boats, bomb and strafe Japanese held villages and search as usual for barges. There were twenty sorties on both 13 and 14 June, and on the 15th, there were seventeen which included two with Airacobras of 110 Squadron USAAF and one with Beauforts of 100 Squadron RAAF. The duration of most sorties averaged two hours. While on an early morning sweep of Muschu and Kariru Islands on 16 June, Flying Officer Leonard Douglas Hall (415788) and Flying Officer Edwin Ernest Turner (415952) crashed on Muschu. A19-120 exploded on impact.
Extract from Parnell, N.M. (Neville M.) Whispering Death: A history of the RAAF’s Beaufighter Squadrons, AH & AW Reed Terry Hills NSW, 1980 – Page 32
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A9845, 17
Bibliography:
Parnell, N.M. (Neville M.) Whispering Death: A history of the RAAF’s Beaufighter Squadrons, AH & AW Reed Terry Hills NSW, 1980
Wilson, S. (Stewart) Beaufort, Beaufighter and Mosquito in Australian Service, Aerospace Publications Weston Creek ACT 2611, 1990