SLEE, Frank Dilloway
| Service Numbers: | 3077, W30700 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 7 July 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 48th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Fremantle, Western Australia, 20 August 1893 |
| Home Town: | Perth, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Died: | 31 March 1967, aged 73 years, cause of death not yet discovered, place of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 7 Jul 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 3077, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1) | |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Oct 1915: | Involvement Private, 3077, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1), --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '12' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Themistocles embarkation_ship_number: A32 public_note: '' | |
| 13 Oct 1915: | Embarked Private, 3077, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1), HMAT Themistocles, Fremantle | |
| 16 Mar 1917: | Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 48th Infantry Battalion, Discharged to the Royal Flying Corps as 2nd Lieutenant |
World War 2 Service
| 31 Oct 1940: | Enlisted W30700 |
|---|
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Frank Dilloway Slee transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and after training was sent on operations in France joining 1 Squadron RFC 4 June 1917. Only 4 days later 8 June 1917 Slee was shot down on his first operational flight just after dawn on this day.
Slee had been brought up in the seaside town of Mandurah, 60km south of Perth. Slee, as a boy, had a 12ft dinghy, and used to sail it by himself on the beautiful sweep of the Mandurah estuary. He always said the only reason he was accepted into the RFC (there were thousands of volunteers) was because he knew how to sail a boat. Boats and planes of the time were both made of wood and canvas, and the wind was critical for each. Slee had served as a Company Sergeant Major with the 48th Battalion AIF at Pozieres.
He was instructed to take the rear position in a diamond formation of four Nieuport Scout fighter plants, a position know as arse-end Charlie, and not to join in any scraps but to watch and learn. However, Slee dived and fired upon a German aircraft and chased it eastwards until he was set upon by two other German planes. He knew he was in trouble when his engine was hit and stopped. Slee spun down to 1,000 feet, still being fired upon by the Germans until he sighted a flat piece of paddock into which he crash landed his aircraft. That afternoon, while laying in a German hospital bed, three German pilots visited him, and they had a broken conversation in schoolboy French. They all shook hands, and Slee did not remember the names of the three pilots, but said they were the three of that morning's battle. In his memoir years later he said, "The boss one was a small fattish chap.” In 1971 it was confirmed that the he had been shot down by Lieut. Hermann Goering, who was the commander of Jasta 27, and would become infamous during WW2 as the head of the Luftwaffe.
In the 1930s, Goring, who claimed Slee, wrote a highly colourful account of the fight, describing Slee as a brilliant, dashing flyer, with five victories to his credit, who put up a tremendous fight before being shot down. In actual fact, Slee had been with 1 Squadron for only four days, posted straight from flying school. Slee was repatriated to England on 5 December 1918.
Frank Slee practiced as a Solicitor- F. D. Slee, in Bunbury from 1921, and was a founding partner of the current Bunbury Group of Solicitors trading as Slee, Anderson & Pidgeon.