The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (406400) Flight Sergeant Leonard Stewart Middleton, 223 Squadron RAF, Second World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial every 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 (406400) Flight Sergeant Leonard Stewart Middleton, 223 Squadron RAF, Second World War.

406400 Flight Sergeant Leonard Stewart Middleton, No. 223 Squadron, RAF
KIA 2 November 1942
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 15 August 2013

Today, on the 68th anniversary of Japan’s surrender, which effectively ended the Second World War, we remember and pay tribute to Flight Sergeant Leonard Stewart Middleton.

The Second World War was the most destructive conflict in human history. The Allies were ultimately successful in defeating Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and militarist Japan, but this victory came at a heavy cost. When the war ended in 1945, more than 60 million people had died.

Australia was spared the worst of the war’s destruction. Most Australians contributed to the war effort in some way, but for the Middleton family of Claremont, Western Australia, the burden was particularly heavy.

Four of Edward and Violet Middleton’s five sons enlisted in the forces. The two eldest sons were killed serving in the air force; another son, Corporal Raymond Middleton of the 2/28th Battalion, was captured in July 1942 during the first battle of El Alamein and spent three years as a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany; Maxwell Middleton, the youngest son to enlist, served in the Mediterranean as an ordinary seaman in the destroyer HMAS Stuart; their father, Sergeant Edward Middleton, had also volunteered for overseas service with the army, but remained in Australia.

Born in 1912, Leonard Middleton was the eldest son in the Middleton family. He was working at the Bank of New South Wales at the outbreak of war, and joined the Royal Australian Air Force in December 1940. After qualifying as an air observer, he left Australia for the Middle East in September 1941. In Egypt he joined No. 223 Squadron of the Royal Air Force in late January 1942. Leonard’s younger brother, Pilot Officer Alan Middleton, had been killed six months earlier serving in the same squadron.

Flying twin-engine Martin Baltimore bombers, from May 1942 the squadron flew operations to support the ground war as the British Eighth Army struggled to stop the advancing German and Italian armies. On 26 May, Middleton’s Baltimore was attacked by enemy aircraft and forced to crash land at Tobruk. Middleton suffered a flesh wound in the left arm. He was soon flying again and qualified as a navigator in July.

The family had already lost one son killed, and another son taken prisoner. After Leonard was wounded, his father appealed to the government for Leonard to be sent home on leave, or transferred back to Australia. Their younger son, Able Seaman Max Middleton, had returned home after three years abroad, but was still likely to be sent away again at any time. “As you can well imagine,” Edward explained, “the strain on my wife’s health is very great … it would be a great comfort to us to have our eldest boy home again, if only for a little while.”

Having invaded Egypt, the Germans and Italians were finally stopped at El Alamein – and in late October and early November, British and Commonwealth forces forced the enemy into retreat. On the 2nd of November, Middleton was the observer in a Baltimore taking part in a raid on an enemy stores dump at the Ghazal Railway Station when the bomber was hit by anti-aircraft fire. The Baltimore was seen “going down in flames” as it left the bomber formation and blew up.

All four of the Baltimore’s crew, all Australians, were initially posted as “missing”. Soon afterwards, Middleton’s parents received a letter from his commanding officer that told how the bomber had been lost and described Leonard as a “popular” officer who had a “good spirit” and was “sound and reliable”. Middleton’s parents may have taken some solace from this description but, as Edward Middleton commented, unfortunately it left “no room for doubt that our son has been killed”.

Leonard Middleton’s body was not recovered until 1947. He was buried in the El Alamein War Cemetery. He was 30 years old. The three other crewmembers have no known graves.

Middleton’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 Australians who died during the Second World War.

We now remember Flight Sergeant Leonard Middleton, Pilot Officer Alan Middleton, and all those Australians who gave their lives during the Second World War.