LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant George William Sergio CROMPTON
Service No: 404207
Born: Mackay QLD, 10 November 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 21 June 1940
Unit: No. 458 Squadron (Attached to No. 1 Overseas Aircraft Delivery Unit)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 1 Overseas Aircraft Delivery Unit Wellington aircraft HX580), Central Mediterranean, 30 July 1942, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles Frederic and Annie Crompton, of Mackay, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Mackay QLD
Remembered: Panel 112, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 120, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Wellington HX580 of No 43 Group RAF was in transit from RAF Station Moreton in the Marsh to the Middle East. It departed Gibraltar at 1141 hours on 30 July 1942 for the Middle East. Nothing was heard from the aircraft and it did not reach its destination. HX580 and its crew were to serve with No. 458 Squadron RAAF.
The crew members of HX580 were:
Sergeant George William Sergio Crompton (404207) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Horace Spencer Wills Fordyce (400396) (Second Pilot) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 25 October 1945
Sergeant Richard Arthur Greene (66340) (RAF) (Observer) PoW
Sergeant George Maxwell (1365019) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner) PoW
Sergeant Leonard William Mears (1376790) (RAFVR) (Pilot) PoW
In a statement Pilot Officer Fordyce reported that the aircraft was attacked by two enemy aircraft and shot down into the sea. Sergeant Crompton was severely wounded in the attack but refused to leave the turret during the engagement. When the aircraft crashed into the sea, the other crew members who were rescued were unable to release him from the crashed aircraft and in 1949 it was recorded that Sergeant Crompton had lost his life at sea.
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
Gunby D (David) and Pelham Temple, Royal Air Force Bomber Losses in the Middle East and Mediterranean, Volume 1 1939-1942, Midland Publishing UK, 2006
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/98/610