The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (419070) Flying Officer Neil William Neelands, No. 194 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (419070) Flying Officer Neil William Neelands, No. 194 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

419070 Flying Officer Neil William Neelands, No. 194 Squadron, Royal Air Force
Killed in flying battle 20 June 1945
Photograph: P12047.001

Story delivered 16 October 2017

Today we pay tribute to Flying Officer Neil William Neelands.

Born in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote on 15 June 1924, Neil Neelands was the son of William and Jessie Neelands.

Before he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 26 June 1942, Neil Neelands was enrolled as an architectural student. He had just turned 18.

After enlistment, Neelands began training as a pilot, and before long embarked for overseas service as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme.

After finishing his training, Neelands was posted to No. 194 Squadron, Royal Air Force. No. 194 was a transport squadron equipped with Douglas Dakota DC-3s. From March 1945 the squadron was based at Akyab in Arakan, on the west coast of Burma (the country today known as Myanmar).

During the Burma campaign, the Dakotas of No. 194 flew supplies to the front lines, helped evacuate the wounded, and dropped supplies to the Chindits, a British Indian army guerilla force.

On 20 June 1945, just six days after his twenty-first birthday, Neeland’s Dakota was returning from what had been a successful mission delivering supplies to Meiktila in central Burma.

South-east of Kyaukpyu in western Burma, the aircraft encountered heavy rain or mist which obscured a mountain peak, and crashed, killing all four crew: Flying Office Neil Neelands, fellow Australian, Warrant Officer Allan Oliver Walkington, and their British crewmates:
Wing Commander Robert Cree Crawford, and Flight Lieutenant Frank Malcom Forrester.

Neeland’s remains are buried in the Taukkyan War Cemetery at Mingaladon, just outside Yangon, Myanmar.

His name is listed here 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 Neil William Neelands, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant Historian, Military History Section