LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Allan NICHOLSON
Service No: 402698
Born: Urana NSW, 29 December 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 12 October 1940
Unit: No. 12 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Binbrook, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 12 Squadron Wellington aircraft W5574), off Denmark, 9 May 1942, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Kiel War Cemetery, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John and Anne Jane Nicholson; husband of Camillus Nicholson, of Coolac, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Grafton NSW
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Taree World War 2 and Post War Memorials, Taree NSW
Wellington W5574 took off from RAF Binbrook at 2214 hours on the night of 8/9th May 1942 detailed to attack aircraft assembly works east of Warnemunde. A message was received from the aircraft at 0116 hours when over enemy territory stating that the aircraft had developed engine trouble and the Captain was proceeding to the nearest land where he and the crew would bale out. The aircraft’s position had been fixed some 24 minutes previously at 55.30N 08.24E. Nothing further was heard from the aircraft. The bodies of four crew members were later washed ashore and two are commemorated on the Runnymede memorial.
The crew members of W5574 were:
Sergeant Kenneth Edward Byrne (798555) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant John Robert Etherington (999910) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant John Edward Hobgen (404621) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Alan John Millar (1376697) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)
Sergeant Allan Nicholson (402698) (Observer)
Flight Sergeant Frederick Duggan Roddy (R/78242) (RCAF) (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, 163/123/249
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line