Allan Edward BUCKLEY

Allan Edward BUCKLEY Update Details

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BUCKLEY, Allan Edward

Service Numbers:	418054, V66116
Enlisted:	10 August 1940
Last Rank:	Flying Officer
Last Unit:	No. 53 Squadron (RAF)
Born:	Kew, Victoria, Australia, 15 January 1922
Home Town:	Heidelberg, Banyule, Victoria
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Engineering Student
Died:	Flying Battle, Bay of Biscay, Atlantic Ocean, 17 April 1944, aged 22 years
Cemetery:	No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Runnymede Air Forces Memorial

World War 2 Service

3 Sep 1939:	Involvement Flying Officer, 418054
10 Aug 1940:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, V66116
25 Apr 1942:	Enlisted Melbourne, Victoria
25 Apr 1942:	Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Flying Officer, 418054
1 Jan 1944:	Involvement Royal Australian Air Force, Flying Officer, 418054, No. 53 Squadron (RAF), Air War SE Asia 1941-45

Help us honour Allan Edward Buckley's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Graham Padget

Flying Officer Allan Edward Buckley of Heidelberg Melbourne Victoria was the son of Harry Buckley Melbourne Victoria.

Allan was a student in engineering prior to enlisting on 25 April 1942 and on graduation was subsequently attached to 53 Squadron RAF.

He was killed on operations over the Bay of Biscay on 17 April 1944, aged 22. FO Buckley has no known grave and is commemorated at the Runnymede Memorial, Surrey, England.

He was a member of a crew whose last operation ended in the outer Biscay Bay area (46o 21' N, 11o 48' W) when at 3.49am on 17 April 1944, their Liberator BZ945 began its final approach to attack the surfaced German U-boat, U993. Advance-alerted via Naxos radar, the U-boat captain Oberleutnant Kurt Hilbig ordered his crew to open fire with U-boat's 4x22mm machine guns and 37mm automatic cannon.

The combined tracer/HE/incendiary ammunition set BZ945 on fire and, out of control it dived into the sea, its depth charges exploding, no crew survived.

_{Extract (https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1243670)}

Biography

Plane was Liberatot BZ945

Virtual
War Memorial
Australia