Branch of Service

Air Force

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Enlistment

28/04/1940

Place of Enlistment

Sydney NSW

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Also shown as Michael Joseph

Date of Birth

25/12/1918

Place of Birth

Hurstville NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Quiros Street, Griffith, Canberra ACT

School(s) Attended

Telopea Park Primary School (1930-33); Telopea Park Intermediate High School [original Canberra High School] to Intermediate Certificate (1934-).

Occupation

Bus conductor, motor driver, Department of Interior, Canberra ACT.

Next of Kin

Son of William and Catherine McCullough of Quiros Street (and later Roe Street), Griffith, Canberra ACT.

Burial Place

Body never recovered.

Service Number

402004

Final Rank

Flight Sergeant

Final Unit

AIF, then RAAF (from 28 April 1940), 250 Squadron RAF (37 Squadron on DVA WW2 Roll of Honour)

Died 18 August 1941 aged 22 years, in action at sea in flying battle off Sidi Barrani, Libya.

Alamein Memorial, Egypt: Column 246.
AWM Roll of Honour, Canberra ACT: Panel 126.
Canberra High School Memorial Tablet
Canberra Baptist Church, Kingston. Inscription on Communion chair.

Before the war McCullough played A Grade hockey, cricket and tennis, held a pilot's licence and was a member of the Canberra Aero Club. He worked as a bus driver and conductor and also belonged to the 3rd Militia Battalion. After enlisting in April 1940 he was sent to Canada in September 1940 as a member of the first batch of trainee pilots, the only one from Canberra in that detachment. He gained his pilot's flying badge on 22 November 1940 and arrived in England on Christmas Day 1940, his 22nd birthday. 

 Initially attached to a bomber squadron, McCullough participated in 11 raids over Germany including over Kiel and Cologne. After his squadron was transferred to the Middle East he took part in the first bombing raid on Tripoli, Libya. He then became a fighter pilot with 250 Squadron of the RAF flying a Tomahawk.  On 18 August 1941 he was on patrol over shipping lanes off Sidi Barrani in the border region of Libya and Egypt when he was attacked by two German fighters and shot down about 25 miles ENE of Ras El Mil Point. McCullough's body was never found. He was 22 years of age.

The Alamein Memorial forms the entrance to the El Alamein War Cemetery. The Air Forces panels commemorate more than 3,000 airmen of the Commonwealth who died in the campaigns in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Greece, Crete and the Aegean, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Somalilands, the Sudan, East Africa, Aden and Madagascar, who have no known grave.

Australia. Department of Veterans' Affairs. World War 2 nominal roll. <http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/>
Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Debt of Honour Register. <http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search/>
AWM Roll of Honour and Roll of Honour Circulars <http://www.awm.gov.au/database/roh.asp>
Canberra High School. Roll of Honour 1939-1945. [Plaque in school]
Canberra High School. Albums compiled for student project researching names on School Roll of Honour, 1985.
Canberra High School. Unveiling of Memorial Tablet. Friday, 25th April 1947. [Programme]
R. W. (Bill) Hughes. Recalling with gratitude: the memorials of the Canberra Baptist Church ... . Canberra, 2004, p. 49.
Miriam Nauenberg. Index to Telopea Park Primary School: Register of admissions 1923-1946. Typescript compiled for the Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra.
Telopea Park Primary School: Register of admissions 1923-1946. Volume (a): Boys. Photocopy MS held by Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra.
The Canberra Times - 21 August 1941 (p.4), 28 September 1942
NAA RecordSearch - Series A9301