LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Wallace Cyril NELSON
Service No: 415088
Born: Perth WA, 2 April 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 23 June 1941
Unit: No. 50 Squadron (RAF), RAF Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 50 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ED415), Germany, 23 September 1943, Aged 29 Years
Buried: Durnbach War Cemetery, Bad Tolz, Bayern, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Wallace and Willenna Eunice Nelson, of Tammin, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Tammin WA
Remembered: Panel 127, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Lancaster ED415 took off from RAF Skellingthorpe at 1907 hours on the night of 23/24th September 1943, detailed to bomb Mannheim, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft was shot down by a night fighter at 2255 hours and crashed on the west side of the Rhine at Ruckheim, 10 kms west of Ludwigshafen. All crew members were killed.
The crew members of ED415 were:
Sergeant John Bruce Atkinson (1052661) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Victor Alfred Darkin (1389500) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant William Albert Heal (909074) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Lionel McNeill Jeffery (1300036) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Robert Edward Morley (1322146) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Wallace Cyril Nelson (415088) (Pilot)
Sergeant John Edward Shepherd (1321126) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/29/54