LEST WE FORGET

Flying Officer Alan ARNOLD

Service No: 410136
Born: Northcote VIC, 7 June 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 5 December 1941
Unit: No. 97 Squadron (RAF), RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 97 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ME625), Lincolnshire, 23 June 1944, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Cambridge City Cemetery, Cambridgeshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Edward and Lillian Evelyn Agnes Arnold, of Pascoe Vale South, Victoria, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Coburg VIC
Remembered: Panel 118, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT

No. 97 Squadron Lancasters ME625 and ND981 collided while engaged in formation flying practice. ME625 spun out of control and crashed at Cloor House farm on Deeping Fen and all eight crew members were killed. ND981 broke up in the air and five of the six all-RAF crew members were killed.

The crew members of ME625 were:

Flying Officer Alan Arnold (410136) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Royston George Davies (1315090) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Maurice Durn (1622745) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Lieutenant John David Fletcher (115198) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Warrant Officer Alfred Leonard Lambert (409318) (Air Bomber)
Flight Sergeant Eric Henry Peace (1434302) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant Henry Stuart van Raalte (415220) (Pilot)
Flying Officer David Gethin Williams (78568) (RAFVR) (Navigator)

The crew members of ND981 were:

Sergeant Cowan (RAF) Survived
Sergeant Frank Ernest Coxhead (1583248) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant John Fairbairn (1456224) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Flight Lieutenant William James Hunt (152730) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Warrant Officer Dennis Gilbert Partos DFM (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant Edward Leslie John Perkins (53366) (RAF) (Pilot)

References:

Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Chorley W R Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War – Volume 5 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1944, Midland Counties Publications, 1997
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/4/135

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