LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Alan Thomas MASSON
Service No: 400928
Born: Mansfield VIC, 5 March 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 November 1940
Unit: No. 20 Service Flying Training School (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 20 Service Flying Training School Harvard aircraft N7187), near Harare, 4 August 1941, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Harare (Pioneer) Cemetery, Zimbabwe
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William and Elizabeth Masson, of Footscray, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Footscray VIC
Remembered: Panel 134, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 4 August 1941, Harvard N7187 took off for Instrument Flying practice at a minimum height of 2,000 feet. The aircraft crashed 16 miles from Bakenkobje Farm near Salisbury, Rhodesia, and the crew of two were killed. In the opinion of an Investigator into the crash: “The aircraft stalled after a steep turn without insufficient height for recovery. It was being flown below the prescribed height of 2,000 feet.
The crew members of N7187 were:
Sergeant G W Ford (103561) (SAAF) (Instructor Pilot)
Sergeant Alan Thomas Masson (400928) (Safety Pilot)
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, 163/142/194
Bibliography:
Winter, V.A. (Vincent Adams) Noble Six Hundred: the story of the Empire Air Training Scheme with special reference to Australians who trained in Southern Rhodesia, V.A. Winter Brighton VIC 3186, 1982