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Australia

Born in Tasmania in 1911 to Adrian and Olive Bowman, Alan McDonald Bowman enlisted in the RAAF on 16 July 1930 but then embarked on 27 November 1931 for the United Kingdom as an Australian cadet for training with the Royal Air Force. 

Typical of many of his generation, Bowman lived an adventurous life-style, whilst his career in the RAF was swashbuckling yet short-lived, common characteristics of many young men of the RAF.

Along with a party of RAF officers Bowman was deported from Germany during the Berlin Olympics of 1936 for what was described as 'ratbag' behaviour. Bowman was an avid skier and did a lot of skiing in Europe as well as some moderate mountain climbing. These interests, combined with his flying skill and fluency in German, resulted in his selection as liaison officer and pilot on German Paul Bauer’s 1938 expedition to climb the world's ninth highest peak, Nanga Parbat ('The Killer Mountain') in the Himalayas. Flying a Junkers aeroplane, he was assigned to drop provisions on the climbers, with the aircraft being fitted with special high-altitude engines capable of attaining a height of 33,000 feet. 

Soon after the outbreak of war Bowman became Wing Commander, one of the youngest squadron leaders in the RAF and received a DFC and Bar for his bombing raids against Italian mustard gas dumps in Ethiopia and for the destruction of major ammunition and petrol dumps in the desert. Ever adventurous, he with Squadron Leader Rozier DSO recovered a Ju87 (Stuka) on the Libyan frontier and flew it back over British lines, dodging British fighter patrols and AA batteries, making three forced landings and eventually picking up, early in the morning near Tobruk, 10 gallons of fuel and a naval officer who was “enjoying quiet leave from Tobruk.”

On 30 November 1941 at 1400 hours in the Western Desert, Communication Flight Bristol Blenheim IV Z7589 was shot down by friendly anti-aircraft fire as it approached the airfield at Gialo (Jalo) Oasis, Libya. The aircraft approached the airfield from the wrong direction and did not give any recogition signals. All RAF personnel on board were killed.

Those on board Z7589 were:

Captain Frederick Christopher Benn (130895) (British Army, Intelligence Corps) (Supernumerary)
Wing Commander Alan McDonald Bowman (32138) (RAF) (Pilot)
Group Captain Cuthbert Joseph Stanley Dearlove (RAF)
Flight Sergeant James Shirley McLaren (654296) (RAF) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)

Later, RAF Wing Commander James Ernest Pelly-Fry commented, "Alas poor Al was shot down by one of our own gunners who mistook his Blenheim for a Ju88 when flying Group Captain Dearlove to inspect an Oasis landing ground. Al was one of many splendid and forceful leaders that the RAF could ill-afford to lose".

His sister, TX2167 Captain Olive Jean McNeil [nee Bowman] (1916-2015) served with the Australian Army Nursing Service in the Middle East and later New Guinea from 1940 to 1944.

References: https://tasmaniantimes.com/2009/12/bob2/

https://aviationmuseumwa.org.au/afcraaf-roll/bowman-alan-mcdonald-32138/

https://www.ancestry.com.au/family-tree/person/tree/48671423/person/250083025102/facts