The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (409775) Flying Officer Alfred Ernest Roberts, No. 164 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Greg Kimball, the story for this day was on (409775) Flying Officer Alfred Ernest Roberts, No. 164 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

409775 Flying Officer Alfred Ernest Roberts, No. 164 Squadron, Royal Air Force
KIA 6 June 1944

Story delivered 9 May 2017

Today we pay tribute to Flying Officer Alfred Ernest Roberts.

Born in Collingwood, Melbourne, on 25 May 1918, Alfred Ernest Roberts was the son of Alfred and Georgina Roberts.

Before his enlistment in the Royal Australian Air Force on the 10th of October 1941, Roberts worked as a clerk in the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill. He had also served in the local Militia.

After training as a pilot at the No. 5 Service Flying Training School at Uranquinty, New South Wales, Roberts embarked in Melbourne for overseas service in November 1942. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, he was one of almost 16,000 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers, who, throughout the course of the war, joined Royal Air Force squadrons in Britain.

After further training in Britain he was posted in September 1943 to No. 164 Squadron, RAF. At the time that Roberts joined the squadron it was equipped with the Hawker Hurricane, soon to be replaced by the ground attack fighter-bomber, the Hawker Typhoon.

D-Day has become an iconic event, not only in the history of the Second World War, but the history of the Western world. On this tumultuous day, a multi-national Allied force landed on the shores of Normandy. It was the first major step in the liberation of Western Europe from the tyranny of Nazism and fascism.

Roberts’ squadron supported the landings by conducting patrols over enemy territory in order to harass, delay, or destroy German convoys and tanks heading toward the landing zones. While performing such an operation, in the early evening Roberts’ Typhoon was brought down near the village of Frenouville, southeast of Caen. After attacking a
German convoy, his aircraft was damaged by ground fire and then came under attack from a group of German Focke-Wolfe 190 fighter aircraft. Attending the crash scene, the mayor of the village recovered Roberts’ body and his remains were buried in the Frenouville Churchyard cemetery.

Alfred Roberts was 26 years old.

In a letter to Roberts’ mother, the commander of No. 164 Squadron wrote that Roberts had been “an inspiration to us and we shall feel his loss very much. Not only has his ability as a pilot been of inestimable value to the Squadron, but his cheerful and buoyant nature has endeared him to everyone with whom he has come into contact.”

Roberts was one of thousands of Australians who served within the British and Commonwealth forces on D-Day and throughout the Normandy campaign. On this day of days, Alfred Ernest Roberts made the ultimate sacrifice.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Flying Officer Alfred Ernest Roberts, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section