Over 6,000 RAAF personnel were trained at 1 W.A.G.S Ballarat during WW2. Approximately 20% of the trainees died in action or on active service.
No. 1 Wireless Air Gunnery School [W.A.G.S] Ballarat was established on the 22nd April 1940 as part of the Empire Training Scheme. This scheme was to support RAF Bomber Command during WW2.
There were 58 Wireless Air Gunner Courses and 12 Navigator Courses conducted from 1940 to 1945.
The MEMORIAL ROLL commemorates to date 1,182 RAAF 1 W.A.G.S. trainees who were killed in action or on active service during WW2.
Fight Sergeant Dennis Leslie BAULDERSTONE 416112 .Courses 13 and 15
Flight Sergeant Baulderstone was aboard the Avro Anson AW878 when it crashed at Lady Julia Percy Island off Port Fairy, Victoria, Australia.
The aircraft had set off on a navigation sortie from its Mt Gambier base. He, together with 3 other crew members, were killed.
He was 22 years old.
The FEATURED STORY pays tribute to a person, and or event, connected to 1 W.A.G.S Ballarat.
The story commemorates the valiant RAAF 1 W.A.G.S trainees who served in WW2 in all theatres of war – those who lost their lives and those who returned.
The FEATURED STORY honours -
Flight Lieutenant Kenneth Dowling trained as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner at No. 1 Wireless Air Gunners School Ballarat Course 6.
In July 1942 he was posted to No. 10 Squadron RAAF attached to the RAF station at Penbroke Dock UK. He flew 72 sorties in Sunderland Flying Boats. The squadron had the task of protecting
allied shipping around the coast of the UK from German U-boat attack. Ken was a member of the crew that successfully sunk U465 in the Bay of Biscay in May 1943 at the height of the Battle of the Atlantic.
A remarkable aircraft, the Sunderland was the largest allied aircraft flown during WW2 and was referred to by Luftwaffe pilots as 'The Flying Porcupine".
