Name
Alan Stanley Hollands (DFM)
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
27/04/1944
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sergeant
1801850
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
101 Sqdn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Distinguished Flying Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VIROFLAY NEW COMMUNAL CEMETERY
Row A. Grave 25.
France
Headstone Inscription
CHERISHED MEMORIES OF A DEVOTED SON AND BROTHER. UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St. Mark’s Church Memorial, Hitchin, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
Employed by the North Metropolitan Electric Company he enlisted in January 1942 into the R.A.F.V.R. and was given Service Number 180850. He joined 101 Squadron from 1662 Conversion Unit on the 11th October 1943 as a Flight Engineer.
On the day of his death he was aboard Lancaster I LL860 SR-I which took off from Ludford Magna at 21.20hrs on the night of the 26th/27th April 1944 to attack Schweinfurt. Its bomb load was 1 x 4000lb ‘Cookie’ and 648 incendiary bombs. The target had cost the lives of many United States Air Force men during their daylight raids and was one of considerable importance to the enemy. Nothing more was heard of the aircraft after take-off. At the time 101 Squadron was operating the Top Secret ABC Airborne Radar System.
The raid was subjected to fierce night-fighter attacks which, coupled with inaccurate low-level marking by Mosquitoes, made the raid a failure. 206 Lancasters took part and 21 were lost. Each member of the crew was awarded the D.F.M. with the exception of Flying Officer Rowe who was awarded the D.F.C. The award was made on the 2 1st December 1945 some twenty months after they were killed. The citation to Alan's decoration read "many successful operations against the enemy in which he has displayed high skill fortitude and devotion to duty".
He is buried in Row A, Grave 25 in the Viroflay New Communal Cemetery in France. Viroflay is 4 km east of Versailles. There are over 70 casualties of W.W.2 commemorated there.
He was the son of Charles Stanley and Gwendoline Frances Hollands of York Road, Hitchin. His father was a Chief Inspector in the Hitchin Police Force.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, London Gazette dated 21st December 1945, Paul Johnson - local historian, ‘Bomber Command Diaries’ by M. Middlebrook & C. Everitt. ‘Bomber Command Losses - 1944’ by W.R. Chorley, Herts Pictorial dated 24th Dec 1945
