Alan Leonard Pitfield

Alan Leonard Pitfield was born on 2 July 1917 in Hobart, Tasmania, and was the son of Leonard Charles and Dorothy Ida Pitfield; like a number of young Australians of his generation he travelled to Britain on a Short Service Commission, sailing from Melbourne in July 1936 to join the Royal Air Force (service number 39007). By 1940 he was a Flight Lieutenant and flight commander with No. 88 Squadron, flying the Fairey Battle light bomber against the advancing German forces during the Battle of France. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, gazetted on 16 July 1940, for completing six night and one day operational sorties in May 1940 in the face of strong enemy opposition and poor weather, his courage and skill cited as an example to the other pilots of his flight. On 12 June 1940 he took off in Battle L5334 to attack German river crossings near St Valery; after pressing home his attack his aircraft was brought down by intense ground fire and crashed near Beaurepaire, in the Oise, killing both him, aged 22, and his wireless operator/air gunner, Sergeant John Ballantyne. Pitfield and Ballantyne lie buried side by side in Beaurepaire Communal Cemetery, France, the only two Commonwealth war graves at that location.