Arnold William DARLING

DARLING, Arnold William

Service Number: NX2755
Enlisted: 25 June 1940, Caulfield, Victoria
Last Rank: Lance Corporal
Last Unit: 2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion
Born: Dubbo, New South Wales, 15 March 1912
Home Town: Eumungerie, Dubbo Municipality, New South Wales
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Not yet discovered
Died: Plane Crash on takeoff, Port Moresby, PNG, New Guinea, 7 September 1943, aged 31 years
Cemetery: Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, Papua New Guinea
C1. E.6
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Dubbo Memorial Drive & Rose Garden, Eumungerie - Coboco RSL Memorial, Eumungerie Mogriguy Soldiers WW2 Roll of Honour
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World War 2 Service

25 Jun 1940: Enlisted Private, NX2755, Caulfield, Victoria
24 Apr 1941: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Lance Corporal, NX2755, 2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion
7 Sep 1943: Involvement Lance Corporal, NX2755, 2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion

Tragedy strikes 2nd/33rd Battalion while awaiting troop lift flight to Nadzab

The 2nd/33rd returned to Port Moresby in late July in preparation for the operations capture Lae, in New Guinea. On 7 September, while it waited near Jackson's Airfield at '7Mile' near Moresby to be flown to Nadzab, via Tsili Tsili, a fully fuelled and 'bombed up' US B-24 Liberator bomber crashed on take off among the trucks carrying the battalion. Sixty men, mainly from D Company, were killed and 92 injured. This represented a third of the battalion's fatal casualties for the entire war.

The remnants of the battalion were flown to Nadzab on 8 September and subsequently participated in the advance on Lae, which fell on 16 September.

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