First Australian Killed in Action in WW2

On this day there were 11 Commonwealth Air Force Deaths.

RAF 11

RAAF

RCAF

RNZAF

SAAF

WAAF



28 September 1939

The first Australian to be killed in action was Wing Commander Ivan McLeod Cameron, who was serving with Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of war. Wing Commander Cameron, 110 Squadron RAF, took off from Wattisham and was tasked for a reconnaissance flight over Germany (Munster) on 28 September 1939 when his Bristol Blenheim 1V bomber, serial N6212 VE-, was intercepted and shot down by a German pilot, Feldwebel Klaus Faber, of l/JG I, Luftwaffe. (Klaus Faber was later shot down over Bulgaria in April, 1941 to become a prisoner-of-war.)

The Blenheim crashed near Kiel, Germany.

Wing Commander Cameron and his crew are buried at Reichswald Forest Cemetery, Kleve, in Germany.

This crew were the first (3) burials of 7,423 that would be interred there by wars end.

Crew:

24225 Wing Commander Ivan McLeod Cameron RAF Pilot (of Australia)
562535 Sgt T.C. Hammond Obs
522192 AC1 T. Fullerton W/Op

From: CAMERON, Ivan McLeod (1908-1939) - Illustrated Heritage Guide to The Geelong College

"Ivan McLeod was the son of, Alexander Cameron (1865-1934) and his wife, Isabel Louise new Sawell (1868-1917) and was born at Bealiba on 4 April, 1908. His father owned Bealiba Station. His uncle, Rev D A Cameron (1862-1940) was a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Victoria in 1921 and Moderator-General of the Australian Church from 1930 to 1933.

The Rev Cameron had a close association with the College and was a member of the School Council from 1908 to 1910 and supervised the School in the transition period after Norman Morrison's untimely death.

Ivan attended Maryborough High School before being enrolled at the College on 2 June, 1926. He attended for 6 months until December that year. After leaving the College he enrolled in a flying Course at Point Cook in Victoria.

Pegasus of December, 1929 recorded that Ivan Cameron (1926) was selected as one of seventeen out of 300 applicants as a Cadet in the RAAF. After qualifying at Point Cook, he was one of five selected as a pilot to go to England for a four year course in the RAF, and has now been promoted to the rank of Flying Officer. He was recently selected to take part in the Aerial Pageant Exhibition over London.

Ivan then did an engineering course for two years after which he received a permanent appointment to the RAF and a posting to Iraq for two years in about 1934. He then returned to Australia for three months during which time he served with a bomber transport squadron. After returning to Iraq for a year he was transferred back to England and promoted to squadron leader on 1 June, 1937. He was subsequently appointed to Acting Wing Commander with 110 Hyderabad Squadron at Wattisham, England. The squadron was part of No 2 Group, 83 Wing Force. ‘No 110 squadron reformed in 1937, as a bomber unit. On 4 September 1939, 110 Squadron led the RAF's first bombing raid of World War Two, when five of its Blenheims flew from the civil airport at Ipswich (to which No.110 had been detached from its base at Wattisham on 2 September) to attack German warships near Wilhelmshaven’ .

Sources: Pegasus Dec, 1929 p53; Pegasus Dec, 1939 p67; Courier Mail (Brisbane) 20 Oct, 1939 p2; The Argus (Melbourne) 2 Oct, 1939 p2; James Affleck, Geelong Collegians at the Second World War p13 (citing Australian War Memorial; Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Dennis Newton, First Impact. Maryborough, 1997; W R Chorley, RAF Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War Vol1, 1939-40.); www Aircrewremembrancesociety."

In Memory of
Wing Commander
Ivan Mcleod Cameron
24225, 110 Sqdn., Royal Air Force
who died on 28 September 1939 Age 31
Son of Alexander and Isabel Louise Cameron, of Bealiba, Victoria, Australia.
Remembered with Honour
Reichswald Forest War Cemetery

In Memory of
Sergeant Obs.
Thomas Cecil Hammond
562535, 110 Sqdn., Royal Air Force
who died on 28 September 1939 Age 27
Son of Charles Robert and Louisa May Hammond, of Dublin, Irish Republic.
Remembered with Honour
Reichswald Forest War Cemetery

In Memory of
Aircraftman 1st Class W.Op.
Thomas Fullerton
522192, 110 Sqdn., Royal Air Force
who died on 28 September 1939
No NOK listed
Remembered with Honour
Reichswald Forest War Cemetery