LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Owen Campbell STEPHENS
Service No: 404812
Born: Walcha NSW, 15 May 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 9 December 1940 (at Brisbane QLD)
Unit: No. 208 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 208 Squadron Hurricane aircraft Z4538), Libya, 24 January 1942, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Samuel and Alice Katherine Stephens; husband of Katherine Helen Stephens, of Yass, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Column 265, Alamein Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Walcha War Memorial Cenotaph, Walcha NSW
At 0720 hours local time on 24 January 1942 Hurricane Z4538 took off to carry out a tactical reconnaissance in the Antelat-Agadabia-Zuteina area, Libya. The aircraft failed to return from this mission. The last known position was the Agadabia area. With no trace of the missing aircraft or pilot being found following post war enquiries, it was recorded in 1948 that Pilot Officer Stephens had no known grave.
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, 163/57/134
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line
Bibliography:
Ilbery, P.L.T. (Peter Leslie Thomas) (422957) Hatching an Air Force: 2SFTS, 5SFTS, 1BFTS Uranquinty and Wagga Wagga, Banner Books Maryborough QLD 4650, 2002