LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Laurance David ORBUCK
Service No: 400029
Born: Melbourne VIC, 19 August 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 29 April 1940
Unit: No. 9 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Honington, Suffolk
Died: Air Operations: (No. 9 Squadron Wellington aircraft X3702), Germany, 10 April 1942, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Louis G. Orbuck and Phoebe Orbuck, of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: St Kilda VIC
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2205 hours on the night of 10 April 1942Wellington X3702 took off from RAF Honington to bomb Essen, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. Post war it was established that the aircraft was shot down and crashed at Himmelgeist on the east bank of the Rhine, 9 kms east south east of Neuss, Germany. All the crew members had been killed.
The crew members of X3702 were:
Sergeant Stephen Elmes (1217079) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Roger Owen Francis (982893) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Alastair MacTaggart (107992) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Laurance David Orbuck (400029) (Observer)
Sergeant Henry Maxwell Tapley (1525452) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Jack Walker (1059468) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)
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, 163/148/209