LEST WE FORGET
Warrant Officer Alister Donald MILLER
Service No: 418145
Born: Armadale VIC, 30 October 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 25 April 1942
Unit: No. 130 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 130 Squadron Spitfire aircraft NH691), Germany, 27 April 1945, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Donald James Miller and Mary Trescott Miller; husband of Doris Marian Miller, of Esher, Surrey, England
Roll of Honour: Melbourne VIC
Remembered: Panel 127, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Warrant Officer Miller evaded capture on 1 April 1945 when Spitfire RN196 force landed behind enemy lines.
At 0715 hours on 27 April 1945 Spitfire NH691 took off together with 3 other aircraft from the Squadron, to carry out an armed reconnaissance of the Parakin-Vlmey area, Germany. At 0820 hours while attacking transport, the Bombing Leader sighted a Ju88 flying very low. The section immediately gave chase and attacked the enemy aircraft from astern. Warrant Officer Miller on making his attack broke off to starboard exposing the underside of his aircraft to the fire of the top gunner of the Ju88, who obtained strikes on the Spitfire. Warrant Officer Miller’s aircraft was seen to skid into the ground and explode. The height of the combat at the time was about 20 to 50 feet. The Pilot did not bale out and he was reported “Missing believed killed”. A report by a Missing Research and Enquiry team stated “the aircraft was shot down by a German fighter and crashed on the western outskirts of Siggelkow on 27 April 1945.”
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
Franks Norman L R, Royal Air Force Fighter Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 3, Operational Losses: Aircraft and Crews 1944-1945, Midland Publishing Limited, Leicestershire UK, 2000
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/27/903