LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Alan Merris SHALLESS
Service No: 409951
Born: Hobart TAS, 27 October 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 7 November 1941 (at Melbourne VIC)
Unit: No. 24 Operational Training Unit (RAF), RAF Station Honeybourne
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 24 Operational Training Unit Whitley aircraft Z9167), Gloucestershire, 23 July 1943, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Oxford (Botley) Cemetery, Oxfordshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Percival Curtis Shalless and Elsie Leigh Shalless, of Camberwell, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Camberwell VIC
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 25 July 1943, Whitley Z9167 took off from Honeybourne for high-level bombing practice over the Idlicote range. At 0150 hours, the aircraft flew into high ground between Hampton Lucy and Wasper four miles north east of Stratford-upon-Avon and all the crew members were killed.
The crew members of Z9167 were:
Sergeant Walter Charles Bull (1375194) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Stephen Hodge Carter (1545420) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Bernard Lillyman (1387539) (RAFVR)
Flying Officer Alan Merris Shalless (409951) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer George Henry Ivor Smith (151332) (RAFVR)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Chorley W R, Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 7 Operational Training Units 1940-1947, Midland Counties Publications UK, 2002
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/37/148