The Airmen's Stories - F/Lt. D S Wallen

Dennis Stanley Wallen was born on 3rd October 1916 in Willesden, London and joined the RAFVR in April 1939 as an Airman u/t WOp/AG. Called up on 1st September 1939, he completed his gunnery training and was commissioned on 4th February 1940.

At some time in 1939 he had married Muriel Fryett in Monkton, Kent.

He was then posted from 5 B&GS to 604 Squadron at Northolt. He joined the squadron on the 7th, as Gunnery Leader.

He was promoted to Acting Flight Lieutenant on 2nd April 1940. He was detached from 604 to CGS Warmwell on 16th June for a Gunnery Leader Course, which ran from 17th June to 15th July 1940.

Wallen served with 604 Squadron throughout the Battle of Britain.

Wallen is recorded as being aloft in Defiant N3500 JT-B of 256 Squadron on 8th May 1941. Piloted by the squadron CO, S/Ldr. GH Gatheral, the Defiant took off from Squires Gate near Blackpool at 00.20 hours to engage enemy aircraft in the Liverpool area.

They engaged a Ju88 over St. Helens but return fire ruptured the glycol tank and the fumes filled both cockpit and turret causing both men to bail out.

They were conducted separately by civilians to the police station at Cronton near Widnes. The aircraft crashed at Micklehead Farm on the outskirts of St. Helens.

(The incident is extensively documented at http://laituk.org/Defiant%20N3500.htm)

His subsequent service is currently undocumented until he was made an OBE (gazetted 1st January 1946) and released from the RAF in 1946 as a Wing Commander.

A ship's manifest in 1953 lists him with the comment 'emigrating to Bombay'.

However a 1969 newspaper report has him living in Sale, Cheshire as 'a manufacturer's agent with two adult children'.

A person of this name died on 4th November 1981 in Nobby Beach, Queensland, Australia.