LEST WE FORGET
Warrant Officer Bernard James SKELLY
Service No: 418189
Born: Flemington VIC, 15 April 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 25 April 1942
Unit: No. 1 Air Gunnery School RAF
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1 Air Gunnery School Spitfire aircraft AR320), Wales, 26 January 1945, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Pembrey (St Illytd) Churchyard, Carmarthenshire, Wales
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Bernard James and Katherine Mary Skelly; husband of Nancy Pearl Skelly, of St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Victoria
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On the 26 January 1945, Spitfire AR320 flown by Warrant Officer Skelly was carrying out an air gunnery and cine attack exercise training and crashed at approximately 1200 hours at Lodge Farm
New Hedges, Temby, Pembrokeshire and he was killed. A Court of Inquiry into the accident stated: “eye witnesses stated that at approximately 1200 hours on the 26th January, the aircraft was seen to crash approximately 100 yards from the main Temby-Narberth road in the vicinity of New Hedges. The sky was overcast and very hazy after a snowfall. The aircraft was flying north at a height of about 50/100 feet, not fast and looked in difficulties. It dived and struck the ground. The Court thought that the Pilot had lost his way, and had throttled back to locate himself, and had either stalled the aircraft or was too low to recover from a slip.”
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, 166/37/713