BURTON, Alexander
| Service Number: | 413527 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 12 September 1941, Sydney, NSW |
| Last Rank: | Warrant Officer |
| Last Unit: | No. 100 Squadron (RAAF) |
| Born: | Ashington, England, 1 January 1914 |
| Home Town: | Coledale, Wollongong, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Wollongong Junior Technical School |
| Occupation: | Mine Worker |
| Died: | 9 April 1984, aged 70 years, cause of death not yet discovered, place of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, New South Wales Garden of Remembrance (Rookwood Necropolis) |
World War 2 Service
| 12 Sep 1941: | Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Warrant Officer, 413527, No. 100 Squadron (RAAF), Sydney, NSW | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Mar 1946: | Discharged Royal Australian Air Force, Warrant Officer, 413527, No. 100 Squadron (RAAF) |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by David Gordon
Son of Mrs. J. BURTON, Coledale Heights, New South Wales.
Alec had at one stage prior to the war, worked in mines near Wollongong and had obviously had a pretty hard upbringing.
He flew with 100 Squadron.
At the first Christmas party I attended after joining AML&F I was delegated by my fellow juniors to ask “Mr Burton” what had happened to his face. He was very gracious in telling the half-dozen of us that as a rear gunner in a Lancaster he had the misfortune to be badly burnt when his plane caught fire from enemy action and he was captured by the Germans. He offered the observation that German doctors had performed revolutionary, (for those days), plastic surgery on his badly burned face whilst not so long before their countrymen had been trying to kill him. Some time ago I found an account of this amazing story.
As you can imagine the wide-eyed youths were somewhat chastened by this account only to be told by Alec that this wasn’t the worst thing that had happened to him in the war. Somewhat incredulously we heard how he had been in a Lancaster fully laden with bombs and fuel, which was accelerating down the grass runway. Alec sensed that the plane was not going to clear whatever obstacles lay beyond the runway and so jumped out of the plane. This was a court-marshal offence however the plane did not get sufficiently airborne and crashed killing all on board - he was not charged. As you mentioned many times in your book crews were very closely bonded and I suspect he never got over this incident.
I don’t know much about his prisoner of war experiences but he did mention that mates used to piggy back him round the camp whilst his wounds healed.