RAAF Flying Officer Arthur Frederick Richard Nash. This hand coloured studio portrait of Nash was produced in 1941, the year he enlisted and was trained in the Empire Air Training Scheme. Nash never flew in an operational squadron. Posted in England to No. 27 OTU (Operational Training Unit), RAF Lichfield, he was part of the crew, still in training, of a Wellington bomber despatched on a raid to Düsseldorf on the night of 31 July–1 August 1942. All the members of the crew were RAAF except for the pilot, Flying Officer Mervyn McNeil of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, who had already completed an operational 'tour' and was now an instructor. At this time, Air Vice Marshall Harris (Bomber Harris) was building up Bomber Command in preparation for his large 'area bombing' offensive of 1943–1944, and in order to maximise the number of aircraft sent on operations training bombers from the OTUs were often utilised. McNeil's Wellington was shot down and all the crew, including Nash, died. [AWM P07830.001]
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