LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Arthur Benjamin FISCHER
Service No: 429454
Born: Yarraman QLD, 21 February 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 8 October 1942
Unit: No. 49 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Fulbeck
Died: Air Operations: (No. 49 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ME308), Germany, 4 April 1945, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles Herman Franz and Alice Maud Mary Fischer; husband of Marie Roseberry Fischer, of Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Chatswood NSW
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 0629 hours on 4 April 1945 Lancaster ME308 took off from Fulbeck to bomb military barracks at Nordhausen, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed in the vicinity of Nordhausen and all the crew members were killed. The remains of two crew members were recovered and the remaining five have no known grave sand their names are commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing, Runnymede, Surrey.
The crew members of ME308 were:
Flying Officer Arthur Benjamin Fischer (429454) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Trevor Bryn Moore (1836726) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Donald George Parbery (1579368) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant George Herbert Simmonds (1584983) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Francis Frederick Sinclair (1802884) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air)
Flight Sergeant Hugh Raymond Sproston (1803345) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Frank Wright (1897971) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/13/442