LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Mervyn James Headen BAILLIE
Service No: 407070
Born: Semaphore SA, 22 April 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 27 May 1940
Unit: No. 3 Squadron (attached to RAAF Conversion and Refresher School), El Ballah, Egypt
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 3 Squadron Tomahawk aircraft AN381), El Ballah, 11 April 1942, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of James William and Gertrude Mary Baillie, of Watervale, South Australia.
Roll of Honour: Port Lincoln SA
Remembered: Column 266, Alamein Memorial, Egypt
Remembered: Panel 98, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: World War II Honour Roll, National War Memorial of SA, North Terrace, Adelaide
Sergeant Baillie has one combat claim for a BF109 aircraft shot down on 25 November 1941.
On 11 April 1942 while flying at about 400 feet above El Ballah, Tomahawk AN381 stalled and then crashed, killing pilot Sergeant Baillie. Sergeant Baillie, an Instructor, had authorised his own flight in order to air test the aircraft.
The search for Sergeant Baillie’s grave was abandoned in 1946 as the crash occurred in a minefield area, and he has no known grave.
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 A705, 163/90/263
Bibliography:
Brown, R. (Russell) Desert Warriors Australian P-40 Pilots at War in the Middle East and North Africa 1941-1943, Banner Books Maryborough QLD 4652, 2000
Ilbery, P.L.T. (Peter Leslie Thomas) (422957) Hatching an Air Force: 2SFTS, 5SFTS, 1BFTS Uranquinty and Wagga Wagga, Banner Books Maryborough QLD 4650, 2002