LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Brian Andrew ARMSTRONG
Service No: 423581
Born: Roseville NSW, 9 August 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 18 July 1942
Unit: No. 85 Squadron, Guildford WA
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 85 Squadron Boomerang aircraft A46-61) near Derby WA, 3 October 1943, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Walter Rankin Armstrong and Nellie Armstrong, of Lindfield, New South Wales.
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 5, Sydney Memorial, Rookwood NSW
Remembered: Panel 104, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: University of Sydney World War II Honour Roll, Camperdown NSW
Remembered: St Alban’s Anglican Church Roll of Honour, Lindfield NSW
Roseville War Memorial, Roseville NSW
Pilot Officer B.A. Armstrong (423581) crashed into King’s Sound, Derby in aeroplane A46-61 during message dropping exercise. Body not recovered.
No. 85 Squadron Operations Record Book A50 Entry dated 3 October 1943
Boomerang A46-61, flown by Pilot Officer B.A. Armstrong, crashed into the sea close to a ship, the S.S. Moomilya, in King Sound, Derby. The aircraft was seen to wobble on a turn, then crash into the water. Neither the aircraft nor the pilot was ever recovered.
Extract from Mitchell, A. (Alan) The Flying Inventor: the autobiography of an RAAF ground engineer, inventor and later pilot, Alan Mitchell, Woodlands WA, 2000 – page 247
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A9845, 142
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line
Bibliography:
Wilson, S. (Stewart) Wirraway, Boomerang and CA-15 in Australian Service, Aerospace Publications Weston Creek ACT 2611, 1991