Mr Coleman, who lived in Verona for many years, was a flight lieutenant in the Royal Australian Air Force where he captained Stirling bombers in the 149 Squadron, which operated out of England. 

Mr Coleman was born in Roseville, NSW on November 14, 1920 and enlisted for the war in Sydney on October 11, 1941. 

He was sent to the 149 Squadron in England where given the nickname of “Digger” he flew missions in Stirlings over Europe with a crew from various Allied countries. 

By May 1944 he had flown 18 operations with the squadron and was stationed in Lakenheath, where they were flying top secret “special duties”, according to his 20-year-old crewmate and navigator Derek Bigg who wrote the story of their missions.

Special duties mainly involved dropping supplies to the French and Belgian secret civilian armies, called the Marquis, which involved low-level flying over enemy territory at night. 

Mr Bigg’s first mission with Mr Coleman was to lay mines near the Isle of Rhé off western France as well as doing a timed run down the French coast. 

They received a lot of flack over Normandy, and every time they approached the coastline French air defences shot at them, taking them further and further away.

On their return journey Mr Coleman decided to go a long way home around the Brittany Peninsula to escape the enemy’s fire. It was only when they landed, way past their estimated time of arrival, that he realised he only had a couple of minutes worth of fuel left in the plane. 

Mr Bigg recalled on one occasion flying through an alpine valley where they saw members of the Marquis under fire from lorry-loads of German troops, they swooped in machine-gunning the Nazi’s and allowing the Marquis to escape with supplies. 

Mr Coleman wanted to become a pilot with Qantas Airways after the war and so always volunteered them for “unnecessary” flights, according to Mr Bigg. 

One such mission involved taking a medical officer to a US base in Martlesham which went fine until they took off to return from the mission and one of the tyres blew up. 

Mr Coleman managed to get the plane in the air, but wanted to try and land on one wheel – he was only stopped by flight engineer Jack Suker who pulled a fuse out so the wheel couldn’t be lowered. 

Fifty minutes later, Mr Coleman safely made a wheels-up landing on the grass beside the runway. 

On July 14, 1944 Mr Coleman and his crew had to do a joint daylight bombing run over Mont Candon while flying in formation – which none of the aircraft crews had ever done before.

Mr Coleman’s bombs were not loaded in time for take-off, so once they got in the air they had to fly quickly to catch up to the rest of the very straggly-looking squadron.

As they flew towards Beachy Head, they saw they were heading for a thunderstorm but as Mr Bigg said, Mr Coleman was a “stickler for following instructions”, and as their orders had been to fly over the town he flew straight into the clouds.

After being tossed about violently by the storm, Mr Coleman’s Stirling exited it and he looked for the rest of the squadron expecting them to be in front – but the other planes had flown around the storm to the north leaving Mr Coleman’s plane in front leading all the others.

While they completed the operation they were never asked to do a daylight run again. 

In 1944 he received a Distinguished Flying Cross the citation of which reads that it was for “numerous sorties including mine laying operations”. 

After his time in the 149 squadron where he completed 33 operations, Mr Coleman used his expertise to train others in the 85 Operational Training Unit, a unit that had been formed in Husbands Bosworth, England. 

He finished his time in the war there, and was discharged from the air force on October 18, 1945. 

WORLD War 2 pilot Arthur Coleman and his crew were part of an important ruse in the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944 which led to the defeat of the Germans.

His navigator, Derek Bigg, said they learnt pretty early that big operations were planned for the night of June 5.

As the day wore on their plane was filled with two tonnes of “window”, which was metalised strips of paper of varying lengths and bundles, each of which would look like an aircraft on the enemy’s radar screens.

The armourers told Mr Bigg the bomb load was to be very light, and they had been told if any canister failed to be released they would be court martialled. 

The dropping point for their load was beside Caen, Normandy but they were told they had to fly from Portland Bill, on the south of England, across the Channel than east from Jersey, France. 

They were not told of the purpose of the trip, but from Portland Bill the crew’s bombardier had to throw out two bundles of “window” every 20 seconds, and the flight engineer to throw a bundle of the stuff of varying sizes down the flare chute every 10 seconds.

During their briefing when Mr Coleman’s crew asked how many other Allied aircraft were expected to be in their area, they were astonished when told “about 1000”, but still didn’t guess the reason of their operation.  

While as they were flying their operation they were shot at by small arms fire from the ground, they returned successfully after dropping the bomb load and “window”. 

Back at the base, they learnt they had been simulating a parachute drop to draw the German’s away from the coast just before the Allies were to land on the Normandy beaches. 

The “window” was to make their aircraft appear to be an armada, and the bomb was actually fireworks, to sound like small arms and mortar fire.

This ruse was ultimately successful, as a Nazi tank force wasted time getting around Caen after being distracted by the “window”, giving the British the opportunity to set up their guns on higher ground in Periers, Normandy.

The British guns then decimated the Nazi tanks when they came within range.  

IN THE 1980s, World War 2 veteran and pilot Arthur Coleman moved with his wife Beryl to Quinlan’s Rd, Verona.

He passed away on August 1, 2007 aged 86. 

Bega Valley Legacy Group chairman Bruce Crane recalled Mr Coleman had been a “tough little nut”.

They had first met in 2004 when Mr Coleman was a bit battered and bruised as he had recently taken a four-wheeled bike up the back of his property when it flipped and rolled on top of him, he spent a day and a half under the bike before he was able to free himself and crawl back home. 

A memorial was erected for Mr Coleman in the NSW Garden of Remembrance, adjacent to the Sydney War Cemetery, Rookwood.