Arthur William Buck was born in Bromley-by-Bow, London on 30th November 1914, the younger of the two children of George and Ann Buck, and worked as a commercial traveller before the war.

He joined the RAF in 1940 but did not begin air gunnery training until 1942.

In January 1943 he was posted to 1654 Conversion Unit, where the whole crew which would eventually fly on the Dams Raid with Flt Sgt Cyril Anderson came together.

Arthur married Minnie Rosetta England in Beckenham in January 1941.

The crew were posted to 49 Squadron in February 1943, and flew on their first operation together as a crew on 12th March. After their second trip, they were posted to 617 Squadron but in fact stayed on 49 Squadron to do three more operations, including two to Berlin.

On the Dams Raid, Arthur flew with Flg Sgt Anderson and his crew in AJ-Y to attack the Sorpe Dam but never reached the target due to a combination of bad weather, navigation issues and a fault with Arthur’s gun turret. Much to Gibson’s displeasure, they were forced to return without dropping their bomb and F/S Anderson incurred the CO’s wrath at the debriefing. “I made it back from the Eder – why couldn’t you from the Sorpe?” he was heard to say -- indeed he did but G-George left the area at least two hours ahead of Anderson and the weather did not close in until later.

Cyril Anderson and his crew returned to 49 Sqn and resumed their operational career with an attack on Krefeld on 21st June. They flew together on 14 more operations but on 23rd September, they failed to return from an attack on Mannheim. After successfully bombing the target, they were heading home when their aircraft was shot down by a night fighter near Offenbach. The bodies of five of the crew were recovered from the wreckage and the local Catholic priest, Fr Jacob Storck, buried them three days later in Offenbach Cemetery. Gilbert Green, the front gunner, and one other unidentified member of the crew were thrown from the wreckage by the explosion and their bodies were only found two days later when the good Father buried them alongside their comrades. Fr Storck said afterwards that they may have tried to bail out, although this has not been verified.

After the war, the bodies of all seven were exhumed and after their identities had been formally confirmed, were reburied in Rheinberg CWGC War Cemetery.

https://dambustersblog.com/2015/08/31/dambuster-of-the-day-no-133-arthur-buck/

For further information:

https://dambustersblog.com/2015/08/16/dambuster-of-the-day-no-127-cyril-anderson/