LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer William Alan LOWING
Service No: 402449
Born: Sydney NSW, 20 December 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 19 August 1940
Unit: No. 86 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 86 Squadron Beaufort aircraft AW355), Greece, 24 July 1942, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Phaleron War Cemetery, Greece
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Alan Hill Lowing and Dorothy Mary Lowing, of Griffith, New South Wales, Australia; husband of Rita K. Lowing, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 126, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Pilot Officer Lowing survived the loss of Beaufort W6471 on 18 August 1941 in which Sergeant Percy Noel Cowan (404171) was fatally injured.
On the morning of 24 July 1942 Beaufort AW355 was detailed as one of three Beauforts forming the first sub flight of 6 Beauforts to attack an enemy convoy near Cephalonia, Greece. About 2 miles from the convoy anti-aircraft fire was encountered. One Beaufort was seen to blow up in mid- air and another was thought to have crashed in the sea near the convoy. A third Beaufort which was hit in the port engine, set course away from the convoy but with the other engine stopping, the aircraft force landed in the sea 2 to 3 miles from the convoy. One man was seen in a dinghy and three others in the water. AW355 failed to return from the above mission, but it could not be established which of the above three aircraft was AW355.
The crew members of AW355 were:
Squadron Leader James Robert Hyde DFC (42130) (RAF) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer William Alan Lowing (402449) (Observer)
Sergeant Ellis Sarene (1260365) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner) PoW
Sergeant Rowland Clifford West (1375371) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
On this mission, No. 86 Squadron also lost Beaufort AQ308 from which Flight Lieutenant Donald Linden Furphy (402159) became a Prisoner of War.
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, 163/139/61