The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (413522) Flight Sergeant Aubrey George Ashley, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian 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 (413522) Flight Sergeant Aubrey George Ashley, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

413522 Flight Sergeant Aubrey George Ashley, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
Killed in flying battle 25 July 1943
Story delivered 5 April 2017

Today we pay tribute to Flight Sergeant Aubrey Ashley.

Aubrey George Ashley was born on 6 September 1917 to Roy and Rosa Ashley of Neutral Bay, Sydney.

He enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 12 September 1941 and commenced training as a pilot. After initial training in Australia, he embarked for overseas service.

As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Ashley was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers, who, throughout the course of the war, joined Royal Air Force squadrons or Australian squadrons based in Britain.

After arriving in Britain, Ashley undertook further specialist training before being posted to No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force.

No. 460 Squadron would become the most highly decorated Australian squadron in Bomber Command, and the squadron that suffered the highest casualties. Flying twin-engine Vickers Wellington medium bombers and then four-engine Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, the squadron lost over 1,000 men, including Australians, British, Canadians, New Zealanders, and South Africans. Almost 600 Australians from No. 460 Squadron are listed on the Roll of Honour.

On the night of 24 July 1943, 26 Lancasters from No. 460 Squadron were taking part in large bombing raid on the German city of Hamburg. As part of the Battle of Hamburg, known as Operation Gomorrah, the raid was part of a bombing offensive by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force.

During the raid Ashley’s Lancaster was shot down. He and all six of his fellow crewmates were killed in action: Australian Flight Sergeants Frederick Taylor, and Francis Forsyth, British Sergeants John Acheson, James Joyce, and Dennis Metcalfe, and Canadian Sergeant Antoine Perron.

The crew are buried side by side in a collective grave in the British and Commonwealth War Cemetery in Becklingen, Germany.

Aubrey Ashley was 25 years old.

His name – alongside those of his fellow Australian crewmates – 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 Flight Sergeant Aubrey George Ashley, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section