Sister 501253 Verdun Bernice Sheah, 1 Medical Evacuation Service, Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service was born the 3rd of March 1916 at Leeton, New South Wales. One of four children, she was the daughter of Thomas Ah Sheah (1874 to 1951), a draper and Josephine May Shing (1883 to 1953).

(*) Verdun is spelled as “Verdon in some references and records, however her service record, other official documents and newspapers spell her name as “Verdun” and this form will be used here. Following education at Narandera Intermediate High School, Verdun took up nursing and trained at Luton District Hospital, where she completed her training in August 1940.

In October 1941 she applied for the RAAFNS, and following acceptance entered the service on the 1st of July 1942 whilst residing  with her mother at King Street, Narrandera, New South Wales.

She trained at Leeton District Hospital, NSW and was posted to Bradfield Park where she was appointed sister 1st of July 1943. Following Bradfield Park, Verdun took a number of postings in Australia until June 1945 when she was posted to 1, Medical Evacuation Service.

Verdun’s work involved evacuating patients by air, in Australia and overseas. On the 15th of November 1945, Sister Sheah, boarded Douglas Dakota A65-54 of 33 Squadron RAAF at Lae airfield for a flight to Rabaul, with stops at the airfields of Finschafen and Jacquinot. On board were twenty seven people, including the three crew, with the pilot being F/Lt Ronald Hanrahan. Amongst the passengers were ten Indian soldiers who had been taken prisoner on the fall of Singapore and were subjected to forced labour, disease and harsh treatment. Liberated in October 1945, they were on their way to Rabaul where they were to testify at the war crimes trials being held there.

The first part of the flight was uneventful and, at about 09.00 the Dakota took off from Jacquinot for the final, fifty minute, leg of its journey to Rabaul. Fourteen minutes later, a routine radio call was received from the aircraft, but then no more was heard and the aircraft was declared missing when it failed to arrive at Rabaul.

 A search was mounted and at 4.pm the following day the wreckage was found by another Dakota of 33 Squadron, RAAF. The wreckage scattered over a wide area 150 feet below the 7,000ft peak of an unnamed mountain in the Kol Mountains. It was later found that the height of the mountain was incorrectly shewn on maps. With the thick jungle and difficult terrain, it took the rescue party seven days to reach the wreckage and it was no surprise to find that there were no survivors.

The bodies were removed and all buried individually in Rabaul Pita Paka Cemetery. Sister Verdun Sheah is remembered on the Australian Military Nurses Memorial, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital Memorial Rose Garden, Kapunda Dutton Park Memorial Gardens Nurses Plaques, Leeton ANZAC Memorial Clock Tower and Memorial, Leeton Mountford Park WW2 Memorial, and the Narrandera WW2 War Memorial.

(*) Rabaul (Bita Paka) War Cemetery contains the graves of 1,153 Commonwealth casualties, of which 652 are identified. https://pacificwrecks.com - this website proved very useful in research