The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (421192) Flying Officer Ronald Frederick Feilberg, No. 466 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 Jana Johnson, the story for this day was on (421192) Flying Officer Ronald Frederick Feilberg, No. 466 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

421192 Flying Officer Ronald Frederick Feilberg, No. 466 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
Killed in flying battle 22 December 1944
Story delivered 2 June 2018

Today we pay tribute to Flying Officer Ronald Frederick Feilberg.

Born in the Sydney suburb of Drummoyne on 17 May 1917, Ronald Feilberg was the eldest child of Carl and Mary Feilberg.
Young Ronald was an active sportsman. As he grew up, he also became skilled at handling a motorbike, spending many weekends on motorbike adventures with likeminded friends.

Completing his education, he because a qualified accountant and was employed by the Drummoyne Municipal Council as a cashier and works costing clerk.
When the Second World War began, he had served for three years in the 2nd Division Signals of the Militia.

After enlisting in Royal Australian Air Force on 31 January 1942, the 24-year-old began training as a pilot. On 19 August that year he left Sydney, destined for overseas service. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Wilson was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers, who, throughout the course of the war, joined squadrons based in Britain.

Before arriving in Britain, Feilberg spent several months undertaking specialist training in Canada before returning to Britain.

While he was in Canada, he borrowed money from his family in order to go to America on leave. In Chicago, he made a voice recording on a lacquered disc in which he described to his family the tall buildings, the theatre he had been to the previous night, and the silk stockings he had purchased for his sisters. This recording has been restored and is now held at the Australian War Memorial.

On 24 November 1944 Feilburg was posted to No. 466 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force. As part of the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Command, No. 466 Squadron was equipped with four-engined Handley Page Halifax heavy bombers.

On 22 December 1944, Feilberg was piloting a Halifax during a raid on the German transport hub at Bingen in the Rhineland.

During the approach to the target, Feilberg’s Halifax suffered engine failure. Continuing at a reduced air speed, Feilberg’s Halifax successfully attacked the target before turning for home.

After a German nightfighter attacked the straggling Halifax, Feilberg held together the badly damaged craft and ordered his crew to bale out. His five Australian and one British crewmate all parachuted safely. They were captured and spent the rest of the war as prisoners of war.

The aircraft crashed near the foot of a heavily wooded and steep slope nearby the village of Winterspelt in Germany, close to the borders with Luxembourg and Belgium. When the wreck was found by American troops in February 1945, Feilberg’s body was buried in the temporary United States Military Cemetery at Foy, near the town of Bastogne, in Belgium.

He was later reburied in the British and Commonwealth War Cemetery at Hotton, Belgium.

In 2013, and again in 2015, members of Feilberg’s family and surviving members of 466 Squadron returned to the site of the crash to hold a commemorative service and lay a wreath by the tree where Feilberg’s body was found.

Ronald Feilberg’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among almost 40,000 Australians 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 Flying Officer Ronald Frederick Feilberg, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section