LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer James Leslie ROLLINS
Service No: 407036
Born: Adelaide SA, 4 December 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 29 April 1940
Unit: No. 49 Squadron (RAF), RAF Fiskerton, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 49 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ED590), Germany, 8 April 1943, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Cecil James Rollins and Lizzie Marion Rollins; husband of Cecilia Maureen Rollins, of Strathalbyn, South Australia
Roll of Honour: Birdwood SA
Remembered: Panel 129, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: World War II Honour Roll, National War Memorial of SA, North Terrace, Adelaide
While on transit to the UK, Pilot Officer Rollins together with Warrant Officer Theodore Eric Hensel (407029) and Flight Lieutenant Arthur Edward Frederick Jones DFM (407103) was in a troop ship that was torpedoed off the African Coast on 11 March 1941. They were interned by Vichy French authorities in Dakar and then freed in a prisoner exchange in May 1941.
Lancaster ED590 took off from RAF Fiskerton at 2117 hours on the night of 8 April 1943 detailed to bomb Duisberg, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed at 2345 hours in the target areas and all the crew members were killed.
The crew members of ED590 were:
Sergeant Haigh Chatterton (1576209) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flying Officer James Balam Lapping (47652) (RAF) (Navigator)
Flying Officer Alexander Lyon Munro (125353) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant George Stanley Pring (656957) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Pilot Officer James Leslie Rollins (407036) (Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Derek John Nigel Southern DFM (107910) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Charles John Tiley (578008) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Rollins is recorded as having been a Prisoner of War on the DVA record.
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, 166/36/47