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Allied Air Forces Losses and Incidents Database.

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NOTE ON DATES: IMPORTANT: For consistency, the Date is given as the date the mission TOOK OFF since the precise time of a loss is not always certain. Take Off date is unambigous and fixed in the official records, but obviously in those cases where the incident occurred before midnight UK time, then the Take Off Date will be the same as the Incident Date. Of course, most Bomber Command missions flew through midnight, therefore a Luftwaffe claim against a plane - or a locally generated crash report - may record the incident as occurring on the day following our Take Off Date. Bear this in mind when cross-referencing to our Luftwaffe Victories by Name/Date Database and other Luftwaffe sources. In some cases other sources may quote the date following our date, using locally generated reports as their source. To add to the potential for confusion, remember to take into account a Luftwaffe recorded date will be in local time, 1 hour ahead of UK time. When we discover a validated Incident Date we change our record if necessary



Owing to a restriction placed by our hosting service, searches cannot be made on less than 4 characters. Searching on 3 or less will produce no results.
We are working on techniques to mitigate this restriction.
TO SEARCH ON SQUADRON APPEND 'Sqn', USING FORMAT '72Sqn'
Thanks to Personnel of the Polish Air Force in Great Britain for supplementary data and images (marked with a chequerboard device) related to the Polish Air Force, and many images courtesy of our respected colleagues Wojtek Matusiak and Robert Gretzyngier. Other images from our own archives.
Responding to requests that respects may be paid in this database to a loved one or friend, or someone you want to recognize, an In Memoriam plaque may now be placed next to any entry. See our Donate Page for details. Search for In Memoriam in this database to see examples of plaques which have been placed.

Polish Air Force personnel have a supplementary database containing more information and many more entries. Check the following:
Personel Polskich Sił Powietrznych posiada dodatkową bazę danych zawierającą więcej informacji i wiele innych wpisów. Sprawdź następujące elementy:
Archiwum: PSP 1939 -1947 Database 17,000+ Polish Air Force Entries
ON REQUEST, MORE INFORMATION CAN OFTEN BE RETRIEVED FROM OUR RESEARCH ARCHIVE ON EVERY ENTRY, AND ON NAMES YET TO BE ENTERED.

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Enter Your search conditions and click Search This (to Search for Squadron append 'Sqn' e.g. 602Sqn. In Archiwum use Polish form e.g. 303DM)

These are the results of your search:

You searched for: “southall AND ivan”

#Name*First NamesTitleRankRAF Equivalent RankService No.BornNationalityRoleAwardsAir ForceCommandUnitDateofIncident *See NoteAircraftTypeSerialCodeVictories (Fighters)BaseTimeMission                        Incident                        FateCommemoratedPhoto (Click to Expand)Referring Database                        Notes                        Links/Archive Reports
1 SouthallIvan8 June 1921AustraliaPilotDFC

RAFCoastal Command461Sqn RAAF
1944-08-11SunderlandPembroke DockAnti submarine patrolAttack U-385Died 15 November 2008


Southall (R) visits captured U-boat

1960



Courtesy Australian National Archives

Ivan Southall served as a Sunderland flying-boat captain in 461 RAAF Squadron, based at Pembroke Dock in Milford Haven, Wales. This squadron flew more than two million miles of maritime patrols from mid-1942 until the end of the European war. 461Sqn crest bears the motto, "They Shall Not Pass Unseen". During the war the squadron sank six U-boats. They also lost 11 Sunderlands and had 76 aircrew killed. Southall himself was responsible for sinking U-385 in August 1944. After the war, he assisted with the compilation of the official Australian war history. He subsequently became a widely published author of historical and children's works.

With German U-boat 385 - a naval submarine - in the crosshairs, the brave captain dropped his payload. The vessel was crippled from beneath the surface from the plane's depth charges and left dead in the water. Flying above, Mr Southall circled overhead as the Navy moved in to collect more than 40 survivors. 'It was terribly deliberate,' he later wrote of the attack in a book titled 'They Shall Not Pass Unseen'. 'It was premeditated murder ... their white faces in the moonlight, looking up at me.' The Captain was promoted to Flight Lieutenant a few months after. 'Suddenly you understood what it meant to defeat a U-boat,' Mr Southall wrote. 'Through circumstances over which you had no personal control, you have been given the chance to justify your crew and yourself.' Upon landing safely, the future award-winning author detailed his pure dread of the experience in the form of a poem.

Southall (front centre) with squadron		Book Review on uboat.net

Wikipedia Bio

Ivan Southall Poem

Paul McGuiness RAAF Archive

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