LEST WE FORGET
Aircraftman Class I Ronald Bruce SQUELCH
Service No: 25242
Born: Bangalow NSW, 20 January 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 13 March 1941 (at Brisbane QLD)
Unit: No. 3 Aircraft Depot, RAAF Station Amberley QLD
Died: Ground Accident, near Ipswich QLD, 26 August 1943, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Ipswich General Cemetery QLD
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Thomas Arbor Squelch and Mary Elizabeth Squelch; husband of Hazel May Squelch, of Lismore, New South Wales
Roll of Honour: Lismore NSW
Remembered: Panel 113, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Bangalow All Souls Church Gates and Wall Memorials, Bangalow NSW
On 26 August 1943, Aircraftman Class I Squelch, a Fitter II Airframe, was killed when a US Service tender collided with a civilian passenger bus three miles from Ipswich, Queensland. Leading Aircraftman Harvey was fatally injured in the accident. The occupants of the bus were mainly RAAF personnel who were injured in the accident. Those involved were:
Corporal James William Anderson (25441) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 22 March 1948
Aircraftwoman Avis Mary Florence Atkins (101482) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 12 February 1946
Aircraftwoman Edith Brimblecombe (Hartwell) (100293) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 14 September 1945
Aircraftwoman Dorothy Joan Burns (100258) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 25 January 1946
Aircraftwoman Lorna Phyllis Cannard (Shute) (94101) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 2 April 1944
Leading Aircraftman Philip William Chandler (75613) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 28 April 1945
Aircraftman Class I Robert Henry Chandler (123632) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 11 December 1945
Sergeant Colin Prescott Dyason (6330) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 22 November 1945
Aircraftman Class I John Douglas Gordon (79772) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 6 February 1946
Leading Aircraftman Jack Hyland Harvey (25761) Fatally injured
Aircraftman Class I Horace Lees (78137) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 13 December 1945
Aircraftwoman Marie Isobel Hannah Little (Dyason) (100068) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 5 January 1944
Leading Aircraftman Gustav Lloyd Luebcke (28809) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 23 November 1945
Leading Aircraftman Douglas Wallace McBride (78515) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 30 November 1945
Leading Aircraftman Orlando James Oberfuschshuber (34871) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 12 December 1945
Aircraftman Class I Ronald Bruce Squelch (25242) Killed
Warrant Officer Leslie George Taylor (3037) (A31014) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 24 October 1954
Aircraftwoman Betty Erica Thompson (101132) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 20 November 1945
Aircraftwoman Eileen Maud Warbrook (100261) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 25 January 1946
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, 166/38/249
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line