LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Rowland Clifton NELSON
Service No: 433533
Born: Enfield NSW, 23 September 1940
Enlisted in the RAAF: 16 April 1943
Unit: No. 30 Squadron
Died: Air Operations: (No. 30 Squadron Beaufighter aircraft A19-146), Boram airstrip PNG, 13 July 1944, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Lae War Cemetery PNG
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Horatio Arthur and Dorothy Rosina Nelson, of Croydon, New South Wales
Roll of Honour: Enfield NSW
Remembered: Panel 102, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 13 July 1944, Beaufighter A19-146 was one of a formation of five aircraft arranged in three flights, detailed to carry out an offensive barge sweep from Dandriwad River to the Muschu Island area, New Guinea. A19-146 took off from Tadji at 0535 hours, and at about 0645 hours the Navigator of A19-164 saw a large explosion on the western end of the Boram airstrip and an inspection from the air showed a crashed aircraft burning. At 1000 hours another search from the air, the tail of the wrecked aircraft still standing and the aircraft number A19-146 clearly seen. Both the crew members were killed instantly in the crash.
The crew members of A19-146 were:
Squadron Leader Gordon Keith Fenton (250666) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Rowland Clifton Nelson (433533) (Navigator)
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, 166/29/134; A9845, 19
Bibliography:
Parnell, N.M. (Neville M.) Whispering Death: A history of the RAAF’s Beaufighter Squadrons, AH & AW Reed, Terry Hills NSW, 1980
Wilson, S. (Stewart) Beaufort, Beaufighter and Mosquito in Australian Service, Aerospace Publications Weston Creek ACT 2611, 1990