Alan Joseph Lyall SEDUNARY DFC

SEDUNARY, Alan Joseph Lyall

Service Number: 416619
Enlisted: 21 July 1941, Adelaide
Last Rank: Pilot Officer
Last Unit: No. 75 Squadron (RNZAF)
Born: Victor Harbour, SA, 23 December 1922
Home Town: Broken Hill, Broken Hill Municipality, New South Wales
Schooling: Victor Harbor Primary School, Victor Harbor High School
Occupation: Bank Clerk
Died: Flying Battle, Germany, 24 August 1943, aged 20 years
Cemetery: Berlin 1939-45 War Cemetery
Coll. grave 6. E. 12-19.
Memorials: Adelaide WW2 Wall of Remembrance, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, International Bomber Command Centre Memorial, Victor Harbor Newland Memorial Congregational Church Memorial Window, Victor Harbor WW2 Roll of Honour
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World War 2 Service

21 Jul 1941: Involvement Pilot Officer, 416619
21 Jul 1941: Enlisted Adelaide
21 Jul 1941: Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Pilot Officer, 416619, No. 75 Squadron (RNZAF), Adelaide, SA
Date unknown: Honoured Distinguished Flying Cross

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Biography contributed by Faithe Jones

Son of Alfred Lyall Sedunary and Caroline Agnes Sedunary, of Victor Harbour, South Australia.

DUTY NOBLY DONE

POSTHUMOUS AWARD FOR
VICTOR AIRMAN.
Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Sedunary, of Victor Harbour, have been advised by the Air Ministry, London, that their late son, Pilot- Officer Alan Sedunary, presumed to have lost his life on 24th August, 1943, had been awarded the Distinguished Living Cross for gallant service. Pilot-Officer Alan Sedunary, together with a crew of seven, was reported missing in air operation over Berlin in August, 1943, while  captain of a Stirling bomber, he was 20 years of age, and attended the local primary and high schools. Prior to joining the R.A.A.F., he was attached to the staff of the E.S.&A. Bank at Port Pirie. His younger brother, Geoff, is a wireless-telegraphist in the R.A.N.
The citation accompanying the notification of the award, reads as follows:
"Pilot-Officer Sedunary had taken part in many successful operational sorties including attacks on heavily defended targets in the Ruhr Valley and Hamburg. An outstanding captain of aircraft, he had invariably displayed determination of the highest order.
On one occasion, when detailed for an attack on Dortmund, his aircraft was attacked by an enemy night fighter while on the way to the target, but this officer skilfully manoeuvred his aircraft and  enabled his gunner to shoot the attacker down in flames.
"On one occasion, Pilot-Officer Sedunary displayed superb airmanship in living his bomber safely back to base after it had been seriously damaged by anti-aircraft lire while over the target."

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