LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Arthur PEARCE
Service No: 406868
Born: Perth WA, 18 August 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 28 April 1941
Unit: No. 220 Squadron (RAF), Azores
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 220 Squadron B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft FK206), off the Azores, 4 December 1943, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Lionel and Phyllis Jean Edna Pearce, of Busselton, Western Australia; husband of Jean Mearns Pearce, of Glasgow.
Roll of Honour: Busselton WA
Remembered: Panel 191, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Flying Fortress FK206 of 220 Squadron on a non-operational flight on 4 December 1943 crashed in the sea two and a half miles north of Lajes, Azores. It took off normally but two miles from the end of the runway it turned to starboard and either dived or stalled into the sea. The cause of the crash is not known
The crew members of FK206 were:
Warrant Officer Joseph Edouard Roch Boudreault (R/125388) (RCAF) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Michael Patrick Campion GC (George Cross) (536451) (RAF) (Air Gunner)
Warrant Officer II Carl Thomas Flack (R/121119) (RCAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer James Geoffrey Johnson (408252) (Observer)
Pilot Officer Harold Lawson (149162) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Desmond Edward Morris (132320) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Robert Noel Morrison (1192004) (RAFVR) (Co-Pilot)
Pilot Officer Arthur Pearce (406868) (Wireless Operator/Air 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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/32/252