Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Flight Sergeant Walter Francis Burge
 

Walter ‘Wally’ Burge was born in Burwood, NSW, the son of Herbert Lawrence Burge and Frances Blanche Burge. He was twenty-one years old when he enlisted on 16 September 1941. He had two brothers: Jack Burge,[1] who was a member of the permanent RAAF, and Herbert Wallace Burge.

Wally was employed as a commercial artist with the Philips Lamp company for five years before his enlistment. He had been educated at Canterbury High School in Ashbury, NSW. He completed his initial training at 2 ITS in Bradfield Park, before commencing his pilot training on 11 December 1941 at Number 5 EFTS in Narromine. He completed his initial flying training on 20 February 1942.

Wally was one of fifteen men from Pilots’ Course 20 selected to complete his training in Australia rather than Canada. Immediately upon leaving Narromine, he posted to 1 SFTS at Point Cook, Victoria, and commenced his course on 4 April. Just over seven weeks later, on 27 May, he was awarded his wings. He was among the first of his class to qualify as a pilot. After his qualification, Wally remained at Point Cook as a LAC and undertook further training.

On 24 July, Wally married Gwennyth Aisla Leslie Friend at the Sydney Registry Office. Gwen’s elder brother was the well-known Australian artist and writer Donald Friend[2] and she was an actress and writer in her own right and she toured Australia to entertain troops with Thea Rowe’s Theatre School. Gwen had three other brothers, Terrence[3] and Norman[4] both of whom served in the RAAF and Henry[5] who served in the Volunteer Defence Corps. The family had changed their name from Moses to Friend in the early part of the century.

On 17 September 1942, Wally was promoted to sergeant and returned to Bradfield Park for leave before embarking for the United Kingdom. Travelling via San Francisco and New York, he arrived in the United Kingdom on 16 December. He spent two months at 11 PDRC in Bournemouth. In February, he commenced his advanced flying training at 3 AFU(P) at South Cerney, Gloucestershire. In early June, he posted to 24 OTU in Long Marston, Warwickshire to crew up and commence his operational training.

At Long Marston, Wally had the embarrassment of colliding with a motor vehicle while taxiing his aircraft, an offence for which he received a severe reprimand. It took Wally’s crew almost three months to complete their operational training and it may explain why they were then granted a week’s leave after operational training. At that time Wally and his crew were selected to be members of No. 431 ‘Iroquois’ Squadron RCAF.

431 Squadron had formed in November 1942 and had originally been equipped with Wellington Xs, before converting to the Halifax Vs in mid-1943. Before joining the squadron, Wally and his crew of three Canadians, Sgt Doug Addison (AG),[6] Sgt Bill Gilchrist (AG)[7]  and W-O Bill Nickerson (N),[8] and three British airmen, F-O John Potts (BA),[9] Sgt Tom Roberts (FE)[10] and Sgt Brian Paul (WO/AG),[11] spent a month at RAF Topcliffe, Yorkshire at No. 1659 Heavy Conversion Unit (1659 HCU) learning the vagaries of the Halifax. On 24 September they finally joined 431 Squadron at RAF Tholthorpe, North Yorkshire.

Wally set off for what should have been his first mission, flying as a second pilot with an experienced crew, on 3 October. However, not long into the flight, the essential rear gun turret became unserviceable and the aircraft returned to Tholthorpe. The squadron did not fly missions for most of October, mainly because of poor weather and Wally’s crew were again granted leave, this time for nine days. As a result of the poor weather he was unable to complete a mission as second pilot until 3 November. The target was Düsseldorf. The aircraft, Halifax (LK-963) H for How, bombed successfully and they returned safely.

At 1722 on 18 November 1943, Wally set out on his second, and the crew’s first, operation. They were flying Halifax (LK-632), M for Mike, and the target was the German city of Ludwigshafen, near Mannheim on the Rhine – no easy task for a new crew. At 2130 (local time) Wally’s aircraft was intercepted and shot down by a German night fighter over the village of Hohen-Sülzen, three kilometres from Pfeddersheim. The flaming bomber crashed into a house on the western outskirts of the village. The crew were found dead by locals. The men’s identification was collected by a German major, and the bodies were handed over to the mayor for burial, which occurred on 22 November. It would not be until June 1944 before Gwen would be formally advised that her husband was presumed dead.

The bodies of Wally’s crew were later exhumed and reburied in a Commonwealth war cemetery. Wally’s body was positively identified by his Australia flashes, his wings and his name and service number, which were stencilled on his clothing.

Now a widow, Gwennyth would receive a pension of five pounds twelve shillings and, eventually, a parcel of Wally’s effects from the United Kingdom. After the war, she worked under her maiden name as an actress and set designer. In the early 1950s, she ran the Theatre Royal in Hobart with her good friend, actress Yvonne (Fifi) Banvard. Gwen and Fifi returned to Sydney in 1952 and lived together until Fifi’s death in 1962. Gwen later worked in radio and television, and in 1980 was living in Mosman, Sydney.

Flight Sergeant Walter Francis Burge, RAAF is buried in the Rheinberg War Cemetery in Germany.

[1] W-O Jack Stewart Burge, 2296; b. Castlemaine, Vic, 26 Apr 1914; d. Umina, NSW, 25 Sep 1999.
[2] Lt Donald Stewart Leslie Friend NX 96987, 2nd AIF; b. Sydney NSW 6 Feb 1942, d. 16 Aug 1989. Friend served initially with an artillery training regiment but after being found to be temperamentally unsuited for field serve he became a war artist with the Australian War Memorial.
[3] F-Lt Terrence Maxwell Leslie Friend 402738; b. Moree NSW 22 Oct 1917, d. 28 Dec 2002.
[4] LAC Norman Leslie Friend 151750; b. Ingham Qld 27 Feb 1926.
[5] Pte Henry James Leslie Friend N169955 VDC; b. Sydney NSW 17 Jun 1912, d. 23 Oct 1978.
[6] Sgt Douglas Gordon Addison, RCAF, R/225303; baker of Otterville, Ontario, Canada; b. Otterville, Ontario, Canada, 24 Jul 1923; KIA 18 Nov 1943.
[7] Sgt William Carter Gilchrist, RCAF, R/139912; farmer of Chipperfield, Saskatchewan, Canada; b. Saskatchewan, Canada, 14 Apr 1915; KIA 18 Nov 1943
[8] W-O William James Nickerson, RCAF, R/130836; of Vancouver British Columbia, Canada; KIA 18 Nov 1943.
[9] F-O John William Potts, RAFVR, 151236; of Wallasey, Merseyside, UK; KIA 18 Nov 1943, aged 27.
[10] Sgt Thomas George Roberts, RAFVR, 1653106; KIA 18 Nov 1943.
[11] Sgt Brian Charles Paul, RAFVR, 1218542; of Louth, Lincolnshire, UK; KIA 18 Nov 1943, aged 20.

REFERENCE: High in the Sunlit Silence - Commander Tony Vine - Vivid Publishing 2017 - Submitted by Author