LEST WE FORGET

Flying Officer Max Stanley McQUALTER

Service No: 413014
Born: Grenfell NSW, 20 April 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 15 august 1941
Unit: No. 55 Operational Training Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 55 Operational Training Unit Hurricane aircraft P3039), Scotland, 27 May 1943, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Silloth (Causewayhead) Cemetery, Holme Low, Cumberland
CWGC Additional Information: on of Charles Stanley and Haidee Ellen McQualter, of Kirribilli, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Wagga Wagga NSW
Remembered: Panel 126, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Victory Memorial Gardens Cenotaph, Wagga Wagga NSW

On 27 May 1943, Hurricane P3039 took off on a non-operational day camera gun exercise. At 1230 hours the aircraft crashed half a mile north of the Edderside Village killing Flying Officer McQaulter. A Flying Accident report stated that: “McQualter was authorised to carry out a day camera gun exercise with Sergeant McMinn flying as target aircraft. The target was carrying out a gentle evasive manoeuvre when Sergeant McMinn suddenly realized that Flying Officer McQualter was no longer with him. He could get no reply from him and could find no trace of his aircraft, so he returned to base and landed. An examination of the wreckage of P3039 and eyewitnesses accounts shows that the aircraft spun into the ground, although it cannot be determined at what height the aircraft went into a spin, and that the pilot was unable to recover from the spin.”

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, 166/26/146
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line

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