The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX205969) Sapper Allan Flood, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, 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 (NX205969) Sapper Allan Flood, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, Second World War.

NX205969 Sapper Allan Flood, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers
Accidentally killed 21 May 1945
No photograph in collection

Today we pay tribute to Sapper Allan Flood, who was killed in the service of the Royal Australian Engineers in the Second World War.

Born on 31 January 1927 in Neutral Bay on the lower north shore of Sydney, Allan Flood was the son of Alfred Ferris Flood and Ethel Jane Flood.

At the time of his mobilisation in the Militia and enlistment into the Second Australian Imperial Force in February 1945 Flood had been working as a process worker and apprentice engineer. He was posted in May to the 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, at the large Australian army training base at Kapooka. However, in the afternoon of 21 May 1945, tragedy struck.

Crowded within a dug-out during a routine demolition training exercise on the preparation of hand charges were two groups: one of 22 trainees and two instructors; the other of three men and one instructor. Also inside the dug-out were 110 pounds of explosives stored for the day’s training exercise. In circumstances that remain unknown to this day, the explosives ignited, and 24 men were killed in the explosion, while two died of injuries shortly afterwards and two more were severely injured.

Flood was one of those killed in the accident. He was 18 years old.

A mass funeral was held for the men in Wagga Wagga. Thousands of people lined the route of the funeral parade as the 26 flag-draped coffins were carried on four army trucks. The cortége included more than 100 military vehicles carrying members of the army and air force. The dead were buried in the Wagga Wagga War Cemetery.

Flood’s name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 others 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 Sapper Allan Flood, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better
world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section