LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Ernest Alfred SKILLEN
Service No: 420289
Born: East Maitland NSW, 3 June 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 October 1941
Unit: No. 50 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Skellingthorpe
Died: Air Operations: (No. 50 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ME572), North West Europe, 12 April 1944, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Augustus Victor and Violet Adelaide Skillen, of Thornton, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Thornton NSW
Remembered: Panel 259, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: The Capt. Clarence Smith Jeffries (V.C.) and Pte. William Matthew Currey (V.C.) Memorial Wall, Sandgate NSW
At 2054 hours on 12 April 1944 Lancaster ME572 took off from Skellingthorpe to bomb Aachen, Germany. The aircraft and crew members were lost without trace.
The crew members of ME572 were:
Sergeant Peter Morley Davies (1819560) (RAFVR)
Flying Officer Edwin McGilvary Fletcher (151988) (RAFVR)
Sergeant David Thomson Mackintosh (969833) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Charles Cecil McKenna (1795560) (RAFVR)
Pilot Officer Ernest Albert Skillen (420289) (Pilot)
Sergeant Anthony Morgan Stickells (144397) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Donald Watson (1340421) (RAFVR)
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 A9300, Bar Code 5263121
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line