Frank Alexander BLACK

Frank Alexander BLACK Update Details

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BLACK, Frank Alexander

Service Numbers:	Q111766, 429371
Enlisted:	26 May 1941
Last Rank:	Flight Sergeant
Last Unit:	No. 57 Squadron (RAAF)
Born:	Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 19 March 1913
Home Town:	Brisbane, Brisbane, Queensland
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Clerk
Died:	Flying Battle, Germany, 6 December 1944, aged 31 years
Cemetery:	Hanover War Cemetery Coll. grave 11 E. 1-4.
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, City of Townsville WW2 HR, International Bomber Command Centre Memorial

World War 2 Service

26 May 1941:	Involvement Gunner, Q111766, duplicate number WW2NR - later RAAF 429371 (11/9/1942-d/d6/12/1944)
26 May 1941:	Enlisted
26 May 1941:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, Q111766
9 Sep 1942:	Discharged
11 Sep 1942:	Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Sergeant, 429371, No. 57 Squadron (RAAF)

Help us honour Frank Alexander Black's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by David Barlow

Lancaster PD264 of Number 57 Squadron RAF was shot down over Germany on the 6th of December 1944 with 4 members of the crew killed in the crash. Two other crewmen were taken POW at the town of Gladenbach, Germany where they were subsequently murdered. One crewman (Sergeant Forward RAF 1666426) landed further from the crash site to become a POW and he survived the war.

Those killed were: Flight Sergeant Frank Alexander Black 429371 RAAF & Flying Officer William Riddell RAF 185681 / Sergeant Robert Shaw McKillop RAF 1826753 / Flight Sergeant Peter Douglas Mann RAF 1601233

Sergeant John Scott RAF 644319 (8 December 1944) and Flight Sergeant Neil Francis Dallaway McGladrigan 426895 RAAF (10 December 1944) were murdered by German policemen after being tortured and interrogated. Both men were subsequently buried in shallow graves in the woods. The atrocity was not discovered until 1946, and a war crimes trial was held in 1947

Details of this incident are covered in the book "Footprints on the Sands of Time" by Oliver Clutton-Brock

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