LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Arthur Keith KELLY
Service No: 401968
Born: Somerville VIC, 2 July 1912
Enlisted in the RAAF: 26 April 1941
Unit: No. 452 Squadron
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 452 Squadron Spitfire aircraft A58-435), off Melville Island NT, 18 September 1944, Aged 32 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Arthur Peter and Violet Bertha Rose Kelly; husband of Margaret Lucie Kelly, of Prahran, Victoria
Roll of Honour: Melbourne VIC
Remembered: Panel 7, Northern Territory Memorial, Adelaide River NT
Remembered: Panel 105, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At about 1015 hours on 18 September 1944, Spitfire A58-435 flown by Flying Officer Kelly crashed one mile east of Cape Van Diemen on Melville Island and he was killed. A58-435 was one of four Spitfires authorised to take part in a non-operational exercise to intercept and attack a formation of four B24 aircraft of No. 380 Bombardment Group USAAF. A Court of Inquiry into the accident found that “due to an error of judgement by Flying Officer Kelly in that he did not break off his attack soon enough, thus colliding with the port outer engine of a B24 airframe, A58-435 crashed into the sea.”
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, 166/22/320; A9845, 123
Bibliography:
Winter, V.A. (Vincent Adams) (408547) Noble Six Hundred: the story of the Empire Air Training Scheme with special reference to Australians who trained in Southern Rhodesia, V.A. Winter Brighton VIC 3186, 1982