LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Bruce Wellesley MORROW
Service No: 411039
Born: Kensington NSW, 22 January 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 31 March 1941
Unit: No. 1 Operational Training Unit
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1 Operational Training Unit Beaufort aircraft A9-49), Bass Strait, 2 October 1942, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Robert Henry and Hettie Murial Morrow, of Hornsby, New South Wales
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 6, Sydney Memorial, Rookwood NSW
Remembered: Panel 112, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1944 hours on 2 October 1942 Beaufort A9-49 took off from Bairnsdale on an operational training flight to seaward but failed to return from the exercise. The Signals Officer at 1OTU received a call from the aircraft requesting a frequency check and the frequency and strength was quite satisfactory. As a routine call was not received from aircraft when it was over the Hogan group of islands in Bass Strait, the aircraft was called but this and all subsequent calls on wireless telegraph and radio were unanswered. Oxford and Beauforts were sent on parallel track searches around the tracks of Exercise DR9, but these found no trace of the missing aircraft or crew. Volunteer Air Observer Corps posts on the northern coast of Tasmania were also alerted to search along the coast line.
The crew members of A9-49 were:
Sergeant Alfred John Carl (405540) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Peter Cribb (405348) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Peter Kirk Crombie (408972) (Pilot)
Sergeant Bruce Wellesley Morrow (411039) (Wireless Air Gunner)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/145/398; A9845, 242