LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Arnold Gregory WELCH
Service No: 400763
Born: Bright VIC, 4 November 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 13 October 1940
Unit: No. 49 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Scampton
Died: Air Operations: (No. 49 Squadron Manchester aircraft L7429), Netherlands, 31 May 1942, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles Frederick and Mary Jane Welch, of Bright, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Bright VIC
Remembered: Panel 113, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 132, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2300 hours on 30 May 1942 Manchester L7429 took off from Scampton to attack Cologne, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Post war enquiries and investigations established from German sources that the aircraft crashed on the island of Ouddorp, Holland, but no bodies were recovered. It was recorded in 1949 that the missing crew members had no known graves.
The crew members of L7429 were:
Sergeant Maurice Samuel Ash (534824) (RAF) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant David Block (903489) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant John Philip Carter (126578) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant George Charles Haynes (1280307) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant John Cook Ramsey (944122) (RAFVR) (Observer)
Sergeant Arnold Gregory Welch (400763) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Sergeant Lawrence John Yeates (1057877) (RAFVR) (Observer)
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, 163/177/272