Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

At the Reichswald Forrest Germany (just of the border from Holland) is a cwgc cemetery. The Reichswald Forest War Cemetery was created after the Second World War when burials were brought in from all over western Germany and is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the country.

Entering the cemetery the graves on the left hand side are those of the airmen who lost their lives in supporting the advance into Germany or whom died earlier in the war in the intensive air attacks over Germany.

Their graves were brought in from cemeteries and isolated sites in the surrounding area. There are now 7,594 Commonwealth servicemen of the Second World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. There are some Special Memorials to some airmen, one of them is the stone of flight sergeant Russell Allen from the Royal Australian Air Force. The inscription of the stone reads `in the memory of`, for the grave of Sergeant Allen is missing.

Sergeant Allen was born on the 21st of october 1917 in Footscray Victoria. He enlisted on 13 november in Laverton Victoria and served with the 460 squadron (AVRO Lancasters) Royal Australian Air Force. On the 22 of April 1944 he set off for an operation to the city of Dusseldorf Germany. His Lancaster (LM 525) was shot down at 01.43 hrs by a German nightfighter (NCO Karl Wildhagen) of 2-NJG stationed at Venlo airbase Holland, before they reached there target.

Sergeant Allen did not survived the crash and was burried at the time in the civil cemetery in the village of Sythen Germany. Although the village and nearby city of Haltern where under aerial bombardement at the end of the war. Nobody really know what happened to the grave of sergeant Allen. It kind of disapeared before his body could be transferred to the Reichswald Forrest cemetery.

He now is remembered there along his fellow serviceman how payed the highest price for our freedom.