LEST WE FORGET
Flight Lieutenant Alan James PROCTOR
Service No: 418174
Born: Melbourne VIC, 2 September 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 25 April 1942
Unit: No. 452 Squadron
Died: Air Operations: (No. 452 Squadron Spitfire aircraft A58-465), Borneo, 2 July 1945, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Jakarta War Cemetery, Indonesia
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Allen James Gordon and Edith Lucy Proctor, of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Moonee Ponds VIC
Remembered: Panel 105, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 2 July 1945, Spitfire A58-465flown by Flight Lieutenant Proctor was one of four aircraft, seen approaching the target in the Senbalocang River area, north east Borneo, in echelon port formation. Blue I and 2 dived and released their bombs Blue 3 (Flight Lieutenant Proctor) called up saying he had misjudged his dive and would try again. He did so and appeared to go well between the ridges of the hills, the tops of which were 1,500/2,000 feet high. He obtained direct hits with his bombs, but it was not until he had completed two strafing runs that he called on the radio to say his oil pressure had gone. He tried to gain height presumably to bale out, but was unable to do so and crashed into the hills with the aircraft bursting into flames.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/33/391; A9845, 123