Published on Tuesday, 29 April 2025 at 12:08:42 PM
Welcome to #TimeWarpTuesday and our special Anzac Day feature…
A Local Hero Focus
A special feature of the Town of Victoria Park’s annual commemorative service on both Anzac Day and Remembrance Day is the telling of the story of one of our Local Heroes. The story of a different fallen soldier, sailor or airman is researched and shared at each service as we strive to honour the national promise that “We Will Remember Them”.
Our Local Hero Focus person reminds us that each brave man and woman who has served our great country in times of conflict and peacekeeping operations has been a real person who had a life before enlistment, they had family and friends, hobbies and responsibilities. In short they were real people, not just names carved in stone on the cenotaph.
This year we were very proud to honour the life and sacrifice of a Carlisle local…
Flight Sergeant Lionel Wilfred FLOHM (1913-1944)
---Husband, Father, Publican, Airman, Hero---
Cover image: Detail of Lionel Flohm from his wedding photograph, 4 February 1935
Courtesy of Rodney Flohm
Signature of Lionel Wilfred FLOHM from his WWII enlistment papers.
Courtesy of the National Archives of Australia.
Birth and Early Life
Lionel Wilfred Flohm was the third son born to Jacob and Rose (nee HERMAN) FLOHM on the 24 January 1913, in North Perth, Western Australia.
His paternal grandmother was born in Poland, with her family moving to England and then to Victoria where in Ballarat, Lionel’s father was born.
Lionel’s parents, Jacob and Rose Flohm came from Victoria, where their first two sons had been born. One of whom a possible twin, an unnamed male died at the age of 1 day in 1899. Lionel’s brother Lewis Herman FLOHM was also born in 1899. Sometime between 1900 and 1910 the family of three moved to Perth, Western Australia and established themselves in the warehouse and retail industries.
Lionel attended North Perth School and later Perth Boys’ School from the age of six in 1919 to 1929, and was good at Mathematics, English and Woodwork.
In 1931, at aged 18, Lionel was involved in a traffic accident. He was not hurt but a 23 year old man, Thomas Cuthbertson, a jockey’s groom from Maylands was tragically killed (1). Cuthbertson had been walking along side Guildford Road in Maylands in the early hours of the morning of 31 May, when two cars passed each other, one going very fast at allegedly 55 or 60 miles an hour (88 to 95 km). Expert testimony and testing would be conducted as part of the inquest, with the story playing out in the courts. Lionel had been driving his mother’s car, and it was subsequently proven that he had been blinded by the lights of an oncoming car, the same lights had also made the pedestrian, Cuthbertson invisible to the eye in the conditions that evening. Lionel was acquitted of manslaughter, after a three day hearing in August of the same year (2).
In September 1931 Lionel was convicted in Traffic Court for having driven a car without a licence and was fined (3). “Mr. Alan C. Muir, who successfully defended Flohm at the manslaughter trial, remarked that the youth was now in a bad state of health. He had been punished by the trial, having suffered confinement in prison while it lasted. Flohm’s people had given Mr. Muir their assurance that the youth would not drive a car again – at least for several years. Flohm himself had expressed a wish never to drive again. Mr. Muir pointed out that Flohm has been arraigned on the charge of manslaughter, but that a jury of his fellow-citizens had found him not guilty of that charge. ‘Flohm is evidently one of those foolish lads with a liking for speed,’ said Mr. Muir, ‘and he has been punished for that.’ “ (4)
Lionel was a also noted swimmer, having been nominated to compete in a Breast Stroke Championship put on in 1932 by the A.N.A Club (5).
Marriage
On the 4 February 1935, Lionel married his sweetheart, Dorothy Gertrude Eliza HOWSON in a civil ceremony in the District Registrar’s Office in Perth. The marriage probably took place in this less than romantic setting because Lionel was Jewish and Dorothy was Catholic.
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Dorothy and Lionel dressed in formal attire, pose for the camera. Their son Rodney believes that this photograph might have been taken on their wedding day.
Courtesy of Rodney Flohm
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Dorothy Gertrude Eliza (nee HOWSON) FLOHM, unknown date, but possibly taken around the time of her marriage to Lionel Flohm in February 1935.
Courtesy of Rodney Flohm
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Studio portrait of Dorothy and Lionel Flohm believed to have been taken on their Wedding Day, 4 February 1935.
Courtesy of Rodney Flohm
Becoming a Father and a Publican
The couple lived in Normanby Street, Mount Lawley where Lionel worked in various roles as a travelling salesman and also selling tobacco in his father’s business.
In 1940, Lionel and Dorothy welcomed the birth of their first and only child, a son named Rodney.
The Carlisle Hotel
In December 1940, the Carlisle Hotel opened to much acclaim. A two-storey hotel located at the corner of Rutland Avenue and Wakefield Street, Carlisle, a location that was dubbed at the time as “one of the new main avenues from Welshpool through to the Great Eastern highway at Belmont…” (6), it was built for Emu Brewery Ltd. The Carlisle Hotel was described in the Sunday Times at the time as: “Facing the Carlisle railway station, girdled by its own driveway with garages at the rear, the hotel frontage stretches for 108ft along Rutland-avenue, and has a depth of 70ft down Wakefield-street.
Source: 1940 ‘Carlisle Hotel Has Opened’, The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 – 1955), 18 December, p. 6.
Source: 1940 'BEAUTY AND UTILITY IN NEW CARLISLE HOTEL', Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), 22 December, p. 10
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Sectional view of the Saloon Bar, the Carlisle Hotel
Source: 1940 ‘CARLISLE HOTEL’, The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882-1955), 18 December, p. 7. (CITY FINAL), viewed 02 Apr 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article84005551.
Courtesy of Trove.
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“The ground floor embraces a large entrance hall, the dining room and its attendant servery and kitchen, the saloon and public bars, the bottle department, and a lounge. Special refrigerator equipment occupies the cellar.
“Another lounge, a writing room, twelve bedrooms, staff quarters and a sitting bedroom and sleepout for the proprietor are contained in the top floor.
“Bathroom blocks are plentiful, [and] shine with metal fittings.
“Adorning a generous allowance of the frontage is a dwarf wall of brick dotted by flower boxes. Further floral decorations flank the double doorway leading to the entrance hall and provision has been made for spacious garden plots.” (7)
Built at a cost of £15,000 the first publican, a Mr Dick Turkington, only held the licence for a few short months, as Lionel and his wife Dorothy, took over the Publican’s Licence in May of 1941.
Dorothy “described the hotel in 1941 as being surrounded by bush with only a basic plank road to Welshpool Road (until the Munitions factory was built in Welshpool).” (8)
World War II
Lionel and Dorothy ran the Hotel together.
In January 1942, Lionel enlisted in the Australian Military Forces but was not called up to full time duty until June 1942. In September 1942 Lionel was discharged from the AMF and he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He undertook training in Victor Harbour and served in other posts in Australia before embarking from Sydney on 12 December 1943, arriving in the UK in January 1944.
RAAF No. 460 Squadron and RAF Base Binbrook
Lionel was a member of the famed RAAF No. 460 Squadron that flew under the auspices of Britian’s Royal Air Force (RAF) and was part of Bomber Command. The squadron was formed under Article XV of the Riverdale Agreement that established the Empire Training Scheme (also known as EATS). This scheme allowed for the creation of “distinct dominion squadrons within the Royal Air Force’s order of battle. Thus, the Australian, Canadian and New Zealand airmen trained under the scheme would serve in Australian, Canadian and New Zealand squadrons (9).” Article XV had come out of the experiences of the dominion’s during World War I, when each government “wished to retain the capacity to influence the employment of their personnel and ensure they were not simply subsumed into the large British organisation. For its part, Britain was not prepared to let the large numbers of dominion personnel result in the Australian, Canadian and New Zealand governments seeking to influence strategic air policy. The British retained control of command appointments to the Article XV squadrons and of the promotion of dominion personnel serving with the RAF (10).
No. 460 Squadron was one of 16 Australian squadrons that were formed during World War II. The 460’s motto was ‘Strike and Return’ with their official crest featuring a kangaroo in mid jump.
Official crest of 460 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force
Courtesy of the Virtual War Memorial Australia.
By the end of the war, Bomber Command had an extremely high mortality rate, with 51% of those who served being Killed in Action and only 24% of service personnel surviving unharmed (although this statistic doesn’t cover post-traumatic stress cases). 460 Squadron itself lost over 1000 aircrew in the time that it was based at RAF Base Binbrook in Lincolnshire, England.
The village of Binbrook maintains a memorial to the squadron and the local church houses an honour roll book that aims to perpetuate the memories of all those who served at Binbrook and to pay tribute to their gallant service. Lionel’s name is listed in this honour roll. Whilst he may not have attended the local church, given he was of Jewish faith, his RAAF Personnel File mentions Lionel having owned a bicycle, which he would have used to explore the area around Binbrook and for transport to the town for recreational activities during time between sorties and operations.
Some famous missions that No. 460 Squadron were involved in included the attack on Adolf Hitler’s mountain hideout in Berchtesgaden that took place on Anzac Day, 1945 and Operation Manna, where humanitarian aid was flown to the starving Dutch in May 1945.
The Mighty Lancaster
Lionel was part of a crew that flew in an Avro Lancaster commonly known as a Lancaster Bomber. These famous airplanes were introduced into service in 1942 and played a vital role in Bomber Command’s plan to undermine the Nazi war effort on their own soil, Germany itself. Interestingly there were 7,377 Lancasters manufactured by Avro and put into service with the RAF, but almost half of these were lost in action. One of the remaining Lancaster’s is the famous ‘G for George’ which is featured in a place of honour within the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. ‘G for George’ flew 89 bombing operations between 1942 and 1944, not many aeroplanes were this ‘lucky’ (11).
The Lancaster bomber was normally crewed by a team of seven and included a Pilot, Navigator, Wireless Operator, Bomb Aimer, Flight Engineer, Mid-Upper Gunner and Rear Gunner.
‘Lancaster atmosphere’.
Courtesy of the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre
Famously the Lancaster could almost carry its own weight again in munitions, they “were built to accomplish their specific purpose and crew comfort and security was clearly a secondary consideration. Generally flying under the cover of darkness, the Lancaster had virtually no defensive armour. The front, mid-upper, and rear gun turrets were hydraulically powered and carried a total of eight .303 calibre machine guns for defence against enemy aircraft.
“The crew worked in cramped conditions, particularly the air gunners who remained at their posts for the entire flight. Some had to place their flight boots into the turrets before climbing in, and then put their boots on. At night and at 20,000 feet the temperature in the turrets frequently fell to minus forty degrees and frostbite was not uncommon. Air gunners manned the rear and mid-upper gun turrets….
“The Lanc's massive bomb bay stretched for 33 feet (12) and, unlike other bombers, was one continuous uninterrupted space. Partly for this reason, the Lanc had the versatility to undertake raids with large, specialized weapons. However, this meant that the main wing spars became obstacles to movement within the aircraft, particularly for airmen wearing heavy clothing and flight boots.” (13)
View of the inside of the ‘bomb bay’ of a Lancaster.
Courtesy of the Bomber Command Museum Archives Canada.
Lionel flew in a Avro Lancaster III airplane, serial number PB469 with the markings “AR-H” (14) painted on the sides of the plane. It is unclear from records to hand whether his plane had a nickname derived from the letter “H” in its call sign as did other aeroplanes such as “K2 – Killer”, “W for Wellington” and “G for George”, but this information might come to light in the future.
Lancaster PB 469 or AR-H was crewed by:
Flight Officer Winton Greer OTTOWAY (A.38181) - Pilot
Flight Sergeant Lionel Wilfred FLOHM (A.427760) - Air Bomber
Sergeant Godfrey Henry James BRIGGS (1609862) (RAF) - Air Gunner
Flight Sergeant William Francis Patrick BULL (A.430137) - Wireless Operator
Sergeant Hugh Swales METCALFE (1595069) (RAF) - Flight Engineer
Flight Sergeant Vincent Edward NORMAN (1582499) (RAF) - Navigator
Flight Sergeant Athol Noel SHILSTONE (1808652) (RAF) - Air Gunner
Members of 460 Squadron relaxing at Binbrook, 1944. Left to Right: F/Sgt Lionel Flohm, F/Sgt William Bull, Unknown, and F/Sgt Vincent Norman (partial).
Courtesy of Rodney Flohm
Operation Aschaffenburg
According to the Operations Record Book for No. 460 Squadron, 23 aircraft were detailed for an attack on Aschaffenburg, Germany on the evening of 21 November 1944, and these flew in a force of 283 aircraft. The main target being the “local railway sidings and through tracks leading out of the city of Aschaffenburg : it being numbered amongst Bomber Command’s prime objectives to cause the utmost disruption to internal Reich communications as a means of preventing reinforcements of men and materials to the Western Front. To this end, the 20/21 November 1944 attack was a success, significant damage being inflicted upon the marshalling yards and railway workshops.” (15)
It was a cold winter’s afternoon at 1528 hours on the 21 November 1944, when Lionel and his six crewmates took off from RAF Base Binbrook in AR-H and headed for Aschaffenburg, Germany. They were carrying a bomb load of 1 x 4000 lb (1,800 kg) and 16 x 500 lb (225 kg) bombs (16). They and another aircraft, NE141 or AR-P did not return to base. The official summary of events log, kept by the squadron reported the weather that day as “cold and rainy” and that “owing to cloud a considerable portion of the attack were scattered.” The operation was still considered to be successful owing to reports of “fire glow and two major explosions at 1919 and 1922 hours.” (17)
Death
Lionel along with others in the crew were considered missing when their plane along with another Lancaster from the same operation, failed to return to base at Binbrook. Dorothy would receive official notice on the 23 November 1944 that her husband was missing, and it would not be until late November 1945 that Lionel’s death was finally presumed for official purposes to have occurred on the 21 November 1944. (18)
On the fatal evening of 21 November 1944, Lionel’s plane crashed and exploded 2km North of Eich, Germany. Reportedly “the aircraft burst into flame on contact with the ground, and when the bodies were removed from the fuselage it was difficult to estimate the number of men involved. The Buergermeister states that to the best of his knowledge five bodies were removed from or near the wreckage, and that two parachutes were found in the vicinity. Monsieur Gilbert Ozanne, who was a prisoner of war at the time and working on a farm at Eich, has written a report which is contained under Enquiry G.1250. He states that three members of the crew baled out successfully and one who baled out too late was killed. He further states that the bodies of five members of the crew were more or less charred. The bodies are buried against the North-West wall of Eich Cemetery, in a communal grave. Above the grave is a head board which says: ‘Here rest in God five unknown English flyers’.
“An exhumation was carried out and the remains were found to have been thrown pell-mell into the grave with no cover of any kind. As far as could be ascertained the grave contained the bodies of five men in a charred and smashed condition.” (19) The bodies were examined and based on evidence remaining on clothing fragments and other small items, five were identified as Metcalfe, Flohm, Norman, Bull and Briggs. These men were subsequently reinterred in single graves at the same cemetery. However their remains were all again exhumed in 1949 and reburied in Durnbach Military Cemetery, Germany. Sadly no trace was ever found of Flying Officer Winton Greer Ottoway (20). Of the crew of AR-H, only Flight Sergeant Shilstone survived, he parachuted out in time but was subsequently taken Prisoner of War by the Germans.
It needs to be noted that in all records found, Lionel’s birth year of 1913 is clearly given and his age is often also written out, and always reflecting the birth year of 1913. It therefore seems unusual that Lionel’s gravestone that was made by and is cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, says he died at age 21. Lionel was in fact 31 years old when he was killed.
Flight Sergeant Lionel Wilfred FLOHM’s gravestone in Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany. Plot 2. Row E. Grave 9. Courtesy of ‘RAAF Deaths Photographic Archive of Headstones and Memorials WW2 by Spidge’.
The Hebrew inscription in the Star of David is a five-letter acronym of the Jewish farewell blessing and means ‘May his soul be bound in the bond of eternal life’.
Legacy
460 Squadron operated at RAF Base Binbrook from May 1943 until July 1945. Disbanded in October 1945, the squadron only then existed in the telling of their exploits. Until July 2010 when as a tribute to all who served in her in World War II, the No. 460 Squadron was reformed within the Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation (DIGO) and is based to the present day in Canberra.
Dorothy Flohm continued running the Carlisle Hotel when her husband Lionel enlisted, but she was too young to hold the licence in her own right, so initially she acted as her husband’s agent, then the agent for her father-in-law, Jacob Flohm, until 1946 when she was granted the licence for the Carlisle Hotel in her own right.
Raising their son, Rodney, who was just aged four at his father’s death, Dorothy continued to run the Carlisle Hotel whilst being a single mother. Rodney Flohm would eventually join his mother in the hotel business following his schooling at Guildford Grammar where he boarded and a stint working in hotels in Britain. Well-known in the district for her compassion and tenacity, Dorothy ran the Carlisle Hotel until her retirement in 1974 after 33 years in the business. (21).
Memorial Scroll given to Dorothy Flohm following her husband’s death in World War II.
Courtesy of Rodney Flohm.
Lest We Forget Flight Sergeant Lionel Wilfred Flohm (427760)
Photograph of Lionel in his RAAF uniform.
This photograph was in Lionel’s personnel file held by the National Archives of Australia. The original negative had begun to decay before it could be digitised, hence the discolouration and torn appearance to the bottom of the photograph.
Do you have memories of a Local Hero from the suburbs encompassed within the Town of Victoria Park? We’d love to hear from you and add his/her story to our collection and to share it with the community. If you can help, we’d love to hear about it and see photographs if you have any. Please get in touch via telephone: 08 9373 5500, email: vicparklibrary@vicpark.wa.gov.au or in person at 27 Sussex Street, East Victoria Park.
#LoveVicPark #LestWeForget #AnzacDay2025 #BomberCommand #No.460Squadron
References:
(1) 1931 'GROOM'S DEATH', The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1955), 6 July, p. 4. (HOME (FINAL) EDITION), viewed 03 Apr 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83892816
(2) 1931 'Local Happenings', Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), 16 August, p. 24. , viewed 03 Apr 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58684085
(3) 1931 'LIONEL FLOHM FINED', The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1955), 1 September, p. 6. (HOME (FINAL) EDITION), viewed 03 Apr 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83888007
(4) Op. cit.
(5) 1932 'BREAST STROKE CHAMPIONSHIP.', The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), 8 February, p. 6. , viewed 01 Apr 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32406073
(6) 1940 'MODERN NOTE IN EQUIPMENT AND FURNISHING', Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), 22 December, p. 10. , viewed 02 Apr 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58959536
(7) 1940 'BEAUTY AND UTILITY IN NEW CARLISLE HOTEL', Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), 22 December, p. 10. , viewed 02 Apr 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58959536
(8) Heritage Today 2000, ‘Carlisle Hotel’, in Town of Victoria Park Municipal Heritage Inventory, Heritage Today, Mount Lawley, p. 118.
(9) Australian War Memorial 2025, ‘Article XV Squadrons’, Australian War Memorial, viewed 02/04/2025, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/E84282.
(10) Op cit.
(11) Australian War Memorial 2024, ‘G For George’ Avro Lancaster’, in Encyclopaedia, accessed online 01/04/2025 https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/george.
(12) 33 feet = 10.0584 metres
(13) Nanton Lancaster Society 2025, ‘The Lancaster Bomber’, Bomber Command Museum of Canada Archives, accessed online 01/04/2025, https://www.bombercommandmuseumarchives.ca/aircraft_lancbomber.html.
(14) “AR” was the designation for aeroplanes belonging to the 460 Squadron.
(15) [Letter to Mrs Jillian Glynn] 1994, ‘Case of F/Sgt William Bull, Lancaster B.III #PB469 Down at Eich’, Ministry of Defence, Great Scotland Yard, London.
(16) RAAFA Aviation Heritage Museum2025, ‘FLOHM Leonard[sic] Wilfred 427760’, RAAFA, Bull Creek, Western Australia, accessed online 01/04/2025, https://staging.aviationmuseumwa.org.au/afcraaf-roll/flohm-leonard-wilfred-427760/
(17) Royal Air Force 1944, Operations Record Book of No. 460 Squadron, R.A.A.F., Binbrook, AIR 27/1909/21, p. 2, The National Archives (UK), accessed online 1 April 2025, https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8405771.
(18) NAA : A705, 166/13/358 p. 29
(19) Op. cit., p. 13.
(20) Winton’s parents lived in Mount Lawley, where Lionel’s parents Jacob and Rose FLOHM had also lived for many years. It is interesting to speculate whether Lionel and Winton knew each other prior to their service in 460 Squadron, but they shared that connection from home anyway.
(21) Australian Hotel Association WA Branch 1974, ‘Woman Hotelier Retires After 33 Years’, in The Hotel Review, Leederville, Vol. 8, No. 7, August 1974, p. 23.
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