The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (420928) Warrant Officer Allan John Farrar, 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (420928) Warrant Officer Allan John Farrar, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

420928 Warrant Officer Allan John Farrar, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
KIA 28 April 1944
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 29 September 2015

Today we pay tribute to Warrant Officer Allan John Farrar, who was killed on active service with the Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War.

Born in Sydney suburb of Haberfield on 5 March 1918, Allan John Farrar was the son of Arthur John Key Farrar and Florence Augusta Farrar. Growing up, he attended Trinity Grammar School and was a keen sportsman, enjoying cricket and golf.

Farrar served in the 36th Battalion of the Militia, and worked as trainee wool salesman. In December 1941 he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force. He began training as a navigator, and soon embarked for overseas service, first to Canada for further specialist training, then Britain. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Farrar was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who joined squadrons based in Britain throughout the course of the war.

Arriving in Britain in December 1943, Farrar was quickly posted to No. 460 Squadron. This was the most highly decorated Australian squadron in Bomber Command, and the one that suffered the highest casualties. Flying twin-engine Vickers Wellingtons medium bombers and the four-engine Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, the squadron lost more than 1,000 men: Australians, Britons, Canadians, New Zealanders, and South Africans. Almost 600 Australians from No. 460 Squadron are listed on the Australian War Memorial’s Roll of Honour.

When Farrar joined the squadron in December 1943 it was in the midst of Bomber Command’s costly Battle of Berlin offensive. On the night of 27 April 1944 the men of No. 460 Squadron were taking part in a raid on the industrial centre of Friedrichshafen in southern Germany. During this operation, the Lancaster in which Farrar was a crewmember crashed in the Lorraine region of France, near the village of Rupt-sur-Moselle. All seven of the Australian and British crewmates were killed in the crash.

Allan Farrar was 26 years old. His body was buried in the village, but was later reinterred at the Terlincthun British Cemetery at Boulogne in northern France.

In Rupt-sur-Moselle a memorial was later erected by the townspeople, listing the names of the crew of the crashed Lancaster of No. 460 Squadron. In a letter to Farrar’s family, the squadron’s commander wrote that the loss of Warrant Officer Farrar had “deprived the squadron of a Navigator of great promise whose characteristic skill and courage were an inspiration to us all”.

Farrar’s name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among the names of around 40,000 Australians who died 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 Warrant Officer Allan John Farrar, and all of those Australians – as well as our Allies and brothers in arms – who gave their lives for their nation.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section