LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Harry Sheperdson ASHBOLT
Service No: 415064
Born: Nedlands WA, 7 April 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 23 June 1941
Unit: No. 31 Squadron, Coomalie Creek NT
Died: Air Operations: (No. 31 Squadron Beaufighter aircraft A19-178), Timor, 15 April 1944, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Frederick and Lillian Charlotte Ashbolt, of York, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 8, Northern Territory Memorial, Adelaide River NT
Remembered: Panel 102, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Remembered: Honour Avenues, Kings Park WA
In accordance with the general support plan for the Hollandia-Aitape assault, the bombardment effort of North-Western Area (a WWII RAAF Command) in April was directed against bases that might be used to stage enemy aircraft against the beachheads. … On 15th April the Beaufighters raided Su village on Timor destroying buildings with bombs and machine-gunning Japanese, some of whom were killed. Return fire from the ground hit several of the Beaufighters and one – 19-178, Flight Sergeant Ashbolt (415064) (Pilot) and Flight Sergeant Ernest Joseph Hiskins (410058) (Navigator) – crashed into the sea forty miles south of Timor.
Extract from Odgers, G. (George) (VX127783) Air War Against Japan 1943-1945, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1957 – Pages 216-7
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A9845, 20
Bibliography:
Parnell, N.M. (Neville M.) Whispering Death: A history of the RAAF’s Beaufighter Squadrons, AH & AW Reed Terry Hills NSW, 1980
Wilson, S. (Stewart) Beaufort, Beaufighter and Mosquito in Australian Service, Aerospace Publications Weston Creek ACT 2611, 1990