LEST WE FORGET

Flight Sergeant Leslie Milton SHEPHARD

Service No: 402885
Born: Wagga Wagga NSW, 7 November 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 November 1940
Unit: No. 460 Squadron, RAF Station Breighton, Yorkshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 460 Squadron Wellington aircraft Z1290), Germany, 29 April 1942, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Hamburg War, Hamburg, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Walter Leslie and Florence Alice Shephard, of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Wagga Wagga NSW
Remembered: Panel 108, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Victory Memorial Gardens Cenotaph, Wagga Wagga NSW

For a moderately successful raid on Kiel on 28th-29th April, No. 460 dispatched ten Wellingtons, all of which had difficulty in finding their target, and one of which failed to return.

Extract from Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Against Germany and Italy 1939-1943, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1954 – Page 313

Wellington Z1290 took off from RAF Breighton at 2226 hours on 28 April 1942 to attack Kiel, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Post war it was established that the aircraft crashed in the vicinity of Neumunster and that all the crew had been killed. In 1953 a statement by a citizen of Poland (through the Red Cross) reported that the aircraft was shot down by a German fighter and exploded in midair.

The crew members of Z1290 were:

Pilot Officer Ralph Bond (402836) (Observer)
Sergeant John Francis Carpender (404868) (Second Pilot)
Sergeant John Percival Cosgrove (408122) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Trevor Hopetoun McIlveen (402600) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Sergeant William Walter Perroux (404661) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Leslie Milton Shephard (402885) (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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/161/200

Bibliography:

Firkins, P. C. (Peter Charles) (441386) Strike and Return, Westward Ho Publishing City Beach WA, 1985

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