Wings Over Somerset E-Book

Peter Forrester

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

One evening as he made his way to a local church social in the village hall during the 1950s, a loud crack shook the ground and the night sky turned to an orange glow, lighting the way for him. Shrugging his shoulders, the author made his way through the village, and in the distance he heard an explosion as a jet aircraft hit the ground. It was a common enough occurrence in the village of Ilton; RAF Merryfield was always losing aircraft and on a regular basis. Fifty years later, and in an effort to put his indifference right, the author began to investigate air crashes in and around Somerset. What he discovered appalled him at the sheer scale of it all. He now shares his findings of Somerset air crashes since 1945 with you.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Title Page

Author’s Notes

Prologue

Why Did the Accidents Happen?

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Appendix 1 Fleet Air Arm Royal Navy Cemetery Plan

Appendix 2 Names of those Buried in the Royal Naval Cemetery at Yeovilton Village

Notes

Bibliography

Plate Section

Copyright

AUTHOR’S NOTES

Abbreviations

A.E.W.

Airborne Early Warning

A.H.

Army Helicopter

A.O.P.

Air Observation Post

B.

Bomber

F.A., F/A

Fighter Attack

F.A.W.

Fighter All-Weather Attack

F.B.

Fighter Bomber

F.G.A.

Fighter Ground Attack

G.A.

Ground Attack

G.R.

Ground attack, Reconnaissance

H.A.R.

Helicopter Air Rescue

H.A.S.

Helicopter Anti-Submarine

H.U.

Helicopter Utility

N.F.

Night Fighter

T.

Trainer

Aircraft Accidents Categories

Category 1: The damage is repairable within established first-line resources.

Category 2: The damage is repairable within established second-line resources.

Category 3: The damage is repairable on site, but is beyond unit technical resources. Assistance from a repair and salvage unit or civilian contractor is required.

Category 4: The damage is not repairable on site, and the aircraft must be removed to an established repair depot or civilian repair organisation.

Category 5: The aircraft is damaged beyond economic repair or it is missing.

Ranks

The ranks shown of officers and other ranks were the ranks they held at the time. They may also have been either local, acting or substantive ranks. The ranks do not necessarily show the final rank of the officer on completion of his or her service.

PROLOGUE

In 2008, I decided to leave something behind for my two grandchildren to remember me by. My intention was to remind them of their grandfather and maybe generate a fond smile or so in my remembrance. With luck my grandson, Alexander Peter, might at least raise a glass of cider to me when I am at the long bar of heaven; I will be certainly raising my glass to him and his sister, Jessica Lily. After all, by the time they are both old enough to have really got to know me I shall have probably kicked off my mortal coils and raised myself up to a higher level of flight, God willing.

I resolved to write down an account about my youth and leave it as a testament to the golden days that have all too swiftly passed me by. My idea was that in the years to come they may be interested to know how children lived in the 1950s and the 1960s, and perhaps pass it on to their children, and even their children’s children. These memories were recorded in When Grandpa was a Child.

As time progressed, I jotted down my thoughts each and every night. A strange and sublime thing then occurred. I begrudgingly began to acknowledge the hidden memories that I had successfully locked away in my sub-consciousness; particularly those surrounding the deaths of so many RAF and Royal Naval servicemen. During the 1950s I recall that these gladiators of the sky were flying the exciting and new fast jet aircraft of the era; in particular the Vampire with its strange boom tail and the twin-engine Meteor jet aircraft.

As a young child, I often witnessed these fearless young airmen soaring high in the sky above my home village of Ilton, near Ilminster, in Somerset. These exciting events occurred during every single day and night. On reflection, I can also remember seeing aircraft occasionally tumbling from the sky, some of them streaming a huge plume of flame behind them. I also recall pilots being buried at the cemetery in Ilton. The 303 rifles of the Honour Guard firing a volley, the smell of burning gunpowder, the sounding of the last post and crying women are poignant reminders that remain with me to this very day. One day in 2009, I returned to my home village to check on what I thought I had remembered.

I left a thoroughly disheartened and saddened man at the sight of the graves of these brave young men who had so freely given their lives for their country. They are remembered on no war memorial. I jotted down their names, took some pictures and thought that it would be enough. But of course, it wasn’t.

I started delving into the aircraft accidents that had happened in and around Somerset since the end of the Second World War. I was shocked and saddened at what I discovered. What I have learned, I now share with you.

WHY DID THE ACCIDENTS HAPPEN?

Why did so many jet aircraft accidents occur in Somerset in the 1950s and 1960s? To put it in context, the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy (RN) were much larger organisations in those days. The civilian world stayed with the piston-engine aircraft for a much longer period than the military, so there were fewer civil-registered aircraft crashes.

The military flying instructors were also men who had survived the Second World War and who had received their baptism of fire whilst flying piston aircraft. They were just not used to the fast jets and the speed in which sometimes irreversible events could happen.

When acquiring a target from the cockpit of a piston-engine plane the pilot had plenty of time to look around and locate it. The speed of the fast jet did not afford them this luxury, and many pilot error accidents occurred when the pilot simply flew his aircraft into the ground.

Another factor was the Korean War. There was a great urgency to convert piston fighter pilots to the jet fighters and the transition to this mostly outweighed the safety aspects. There was no Health and Safety at Work Act (H&SAW), and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) claimed Crown Exemption at that time and could not be sued for negligence.

Air safety in military aircraft, which included the standard fitting of ejector seats and the engineering out of defects, eventually began to make a marked difference on the high rate of attrition amongst the pilots and crew of the RAF and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). This is not to forget the Army Air Corps, whose transition into the jet age took longer to accomplish. In addition, the introduction of ground trainers during the advent of the computer age also allowed pilots to encounter conditions that hitherto they would only have actually experienced whilst physically flying an aircraft.

As a fall out from these improvements, the safety of civilian aircraft was also considerably improved. On the down side, civil jet aircraft were very much at the cutting edge of new technology and as such many accidents occurred before what caused them could be ascertained.

The most significant military aircraft disasters that caused the most fatalities throughout the UK and in and around Somerset occurred during the early 1950s. These happened in the very first jet training aircraft that were available for pilots to train in: the Meteors and the Vampires.

Again, speed was a major factor. There were also many reported incidents of aircraft colliding with each other, usually with catastrophic results. Air-traffic control, too, had to change its procedures rapidly to reflect the speed at which the modern aircraft approached an airfield or airport. Gone were the luxuries of having ample time to vector and direct an aircraft safely in to an airfield. With modern jets nearing a landing zone at such high speeds, probably travelling at 6 miles a minute or so, it is quite easy to understand the control difficulties experienced in the very early days of jet aircraft.

Jet aeroplanes were still in their infancy and crashes were a commonplace, almost everyday event. Unless an aircraft happened to fall into your back garden or near you it would be most unlikely for you to hear about it. The Royal Navy’s Sea Vixen aircraft lost more than fifty air crew, killed in major accidents around the world between 1962 and 1970 – quite a high rate for a specific aircraft type but a lot of these crashes took place at sea and out of sight, and also out of mind, of the general public.

Whichever way you look at it, flying military aircraft comes with an inherent risk. In order to carry out its wartime role, pilots have to practise in peacetime to gain the necessary skills. Sometimes they still have to pay the ultimate price; I have tried to list all those men who have lost their lives since the end of the Second World War where the personnel or an aircraft had a connection with Somerset. In this one shire county alone, the numbers lost are staggering.

There have been civilian aircraft crashes in Somerset or affecting Somerset since the end of the Second World War, but not on the scale of the military aircraft losses. The only major civilian airfield in Bristol and Somerset is the Bristol International Airport, although one crash saw a lot of women from Somerset villages killed in the same accident, but in another country.

Most civilian accidents concerned small private planes that came to grief landing or taking off on private air strips. Modern times have also introduced a new phenomenon – the hot air balloon and microlight aircraft. These, too, have had accidents over the recent years, particularly since 1990. I have also added a couple of ‘near misses’ as a grim reminder of what might have been. In addition, a large number of pieces of aircraft seemed to have fallen from the sky, but luckily with no deaths or injuries recorded. I have included a few to show how dangerous the skies over Somerset have actually been.

I also acknowledge that I am no ‘expert’ on aircraft, and my arrival at this point in publishing my book about aircraft crashes has been driven by the fact that so many seem to have occurred with a connection to my home county. I have tried to ensure that the Marks and types of the aircraft shown are the correct ones, although some distinguished and official sources actually do contradict each other. This is not surprising given the number of aircraft that were converted from one Mark to another Mark or type. All in all, a surprising number of aircraft accidents have occurred in Somerset, or have a Somerset connection. Where this has happened, I have tried to show them. Forgive me if I have not.

I also acknowledge the painstaking work that has been done to document the crashes from official sources. Halley, Sturtivant, Burrow, Howard, Cummings, Robertson and Webb, to name but a few, have patiently sifted through the records provided by the Ministry of Defence and left a broad outline of air accidents. By speaking to people who were there in Somerset when the events occurred, and by patiently examining local newspaper archives, I hope to have added to the record – so easily diminished by the rapid passing of time. I have not shown every aircraft crash, but merely recorded those since the end of the Second World War where loss of life has taken place or where, because of the incident, the aircraft never flew again.

1940s

1945

10 September 1945 • Handley Page Halifax B.III • Serial Number RG380 • Coastal Command • Number 517 Squadron RAF • Home Base – RAF Brawdy • Pembrokeshire, South-West Wales

This particular aircraft belonged to the meteorological squadron of the RAF and had been in the air for about nine and a half hours. It had been diverted to Westonzoyland airfield because of bad weather.1 Due to radio interference, the pilot either did not hear or acknowledge the air-traffic controller, and turning away from Westonzoyland without announcing his intentions, he met with tragedy. During dense fog and at dusk the aircraft flew into the ground at Crowcombe Park on the south side of the Quantock Hills in Somerset. The plane burst into flames on impact and all nine of its crew members perished:

197664 Pilot Officer Keith Gordon Proverbs aged twenty-seven, is buried in the Bath (Haycombe) Cemetery. He can be found in Plot 39, Section H, Row D, Grave 249. He was born in Bridgetown, Barbados, and was one of the few Caribbean pilots of this era.

154868 Flying Officer John Joseph Frederick Hoben aged twenty-one, is buried in the Caterham and Warlingham Burial Ground, Caterham, Surrey, in Section M, Grave 4.

153580P Flying Officer Lindsay George McMillan aged twenty-three, is buried in Stoneham Cemetery in Southampton. He can be found in Section M.3, Grave 102.

191540 Flying Officer Patrick Alfred Bee aged twenty-five, is buried in the churchyard of St Botolph, Barton Seagrave, near Kettering.

1471979 Warrant Officer Roy Donald Cartwright is buried in Watford Cemetery and can be found in Section C, Unconsecrated Row 1, Grave 311.

1608294 Flight Sergeant Robert William Vinton aged twenty-one, is buried in Paignton Cemetery, Consecrated Section, Grave 5,090.

1154488 Flight Sergeant Dennis Norman Everett aged twenty-five, is buried in the Addlestone Burial Ground, Surrey, in Section 23, Grave 28.

1483506 Louis Grimble Groves aged twenty-four, is buried in the churchyard of St Maughold, Kirk Maughold, in the Isle of Man.

1825115 Sergeant John Macilrick Bryce Gordon aged twenty-one, is buried in Kirkton Cemetery at Fraserburgh, Scotland.

10 September 1945 • Hawker Tempest II • Serial Number MW825 • Number 15 Ferry Unit • Home Base – RAF Filton • Bristol

The pilot of this aircraft was undergoing a conversion course to fly another type of aircraft and had been in the air for about thirty minutes when the accident occurred.2 He was completing a circuit of the airfield and as he went to turn in to make a landing he suddenly stalled the engine and lost control. It was found that the pilot did not have his safety harness set to the locked position and there was some speculation that this is why he was killed in the crash.

56730 Pilot Officer Harry James Marshall Harris was aged twenty-two years when he died. He is buried in the Hinxton (St Mary and St John) churchyard, Cambridgeshire.

8 October 1945 • Gloster G.41 Meteor F.3 • Serial Number EE302 • Number 245 Squadron RAF (Renumbered from Number 504 Squadron RAF late in 1945) • Home Base – RAF Colerne • Colerne, Wiltshire

This aircraft crashed approximately 3 miles west of Frome, Somerset, when the aircraft went out of control with an unintentional spin at about 8,000ft.3 It recovered briefly at about 6,000ft before spinning to the left and into the ground. The pilot was killed.

182728 Flying Officer Ian Lamont of the RAF Volunteer Reserve is buried at the Kirkapol Burial Ground on the Isle of Tiree, Argyllshire, in Scotland.

16 October 1945 • Brigand T.F.1 • Serial Number RH742 • Bristol Aeroplane Company • Home Base – Filton • Bristol

This aircraft was one of the first of its type and was on a production test flight when it made a very heavy landing in a strong crosswind.4 The landing wheels were splayed which resulted in the aircraft being declared a Category 4. None of the crew of three sustained any injuries during this incident.

The aircraft was repaired and flew again, but alas on 19 July 1947, when part of the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) and flown by Flight Lieutenant L.T. Morren, the aircraft failed to pull out of firing pass during an exercise in Lyme Bay and off the coast of Dorset. It is assumed that there was a dive brake failure and the aircraft went into a slow roll and lost speed while inverted. It then spiralled into the sea. This was the first fatal accident of this aircraft type.

2 November 1945 • Anson I • Serial Number NK876 • Number 10 Radio School • Home Base – RAF Carew Cheriton • Pembrokeshire, South Wales

On landing at Whitchurch airport in Bristol during very poor visibility, the aircraft overran the runway before crossing the road at the extreme end of the airfield’s boundary, hitting a hedge.5 The aircraft ended up in a field but no casualties were reported.

3 November 1945 • Taylorcraft Auster I • Serial Number LB328 • Number 183 Squadron RAF • Home Base – RAF Chilbolton • Near Andover, Wiltshire

This aircraft encountered terrible weather conditions and crashed at Barrow Gurney, Somerset, when it hit a hedge in a forced landing.6 The aircraft overturned and was damaged beyond repair.

9 November 1945 • Chance Vought Corsair F3A-1 • Serial Number JS852 • Number 1 Naval Fighter School • Number 759 Naval Air Squadron • Home Base – HMS Heron/HMS Hummingbird • RNAS Yeovilton/Zeales, Somerset

FX754461 Temporary Acting Petty Officer Pilot Gordon Booth Hughes, aged twenty-one, was killed in a mid-air collision over Devon, near Barnstaple, with another Chance Vought Corsair F3A-1, Serial No JS703. He was born on 31 July 1924. He was the son of Vernon and Helen Ross Hughes, of Powell River, British Columbia, Canada.

This young man lies buried in the Royal Navy Cemetery of St Bartholomew’s church in Yeovilton village, Somerset. His final resting place is recorded in Appendix 2.

9 November 1945 • Chance Vought Corsair F3A-1 • Serial Number JS703 • Number 1 Naval Fighter School • Number 759 Naval Air Squadron • Home Base – HMS Heron/HMS Hummingbird • RNAS Yeovilton/Zeales, Somerset

Sub Lieutenant D.L. Allen RCN baled out successfully and survived the mid-air collision near Barnstaple, Devon, with Chance Vought Corsair F3A-1, Serial No JS852. The pilot in the other aircraft lost his life.

9 November 1945 • Supermarine Sea Fire III • Serial Number PP997 • Number 761 Naval Air Squadron • Home Base – HMS Dipper • Henstridge, Somerset

Temporary Sub Lieutenant (A) Dale Gladstone Carlson, aged twenty, was killed in an air crash. He was on a gun-sighting practice near Sturminster Newton in Dorset when he seemed to lose control and spun into the ground. His aircraft burnt fiercely on impact and he was burned beyond recognition. The aircraft came down in a field at West Orchard, near Shaftsbury. Oddly enough a spanner was found in its burnt out remains that should not have been there and there was some speculation that this item might have been the cause of the accident.

He was the son of Harry and Ida Carlson, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. His nationality is listed in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as being from the United Kingdom. This officer’s final resting place is at Sherborne Cemetery in Dorset and he is listed as being in Section 6, Grave 3.

Source: Western Gazette.

22 November 1945 • Consolidated Liberator G.R.8 • Serial Number KH126 • Number 53 Squadron • RAF Transport Command • Home Base – RAF St David’s • Pembrokeshire, South Wales

On a cold and foggy November morning, a Liberator of RAF Transport Command plunged into the top of the Blackdown Hills at a height of 900ft near Hare Lane, Buckland St Mary, Somerset, shortly after taking off for a routine air-trooping flight to India. The pilot had been briefed that if in cloud when climbing he was not to make a turn until he had passed through the 1,500ft level. All on board were killed.

A memorial stone marks the place where the accident occurred and can be found at Grid Reference ST277155. This memorial can be located by entering the village of Broadway, Somerset, from the A358 and opposite the Ilton turning. Follow the road straight through the village and at the first crossroads go straight across. You are now in Hare Lane. Follow this very narrow road to the top of the hill and on your left-hand side you will see a large field gateway which will easily accommodate a car. There you will find an ash tree, and beneath it there is a large lichen-covered rock with a grey stone plaque placed in front of it. It reads:

Air Crash

22.11.45 Liberator KH126

In memory of the 27 men who perished at this site

Almost opposite this tree and on the other side of the road you will see another field gateway. If you go across to it and look down the hill and slightly to the left of the hedge line, you can, on a clear day, just make out RAF Merryfield lying in the valley below, about 5,000m away.

When you do, you will quickly realise that the really sad thing about the accident is that the plane only needed to have been another 6ft (2m) or so higher and it would have cleared the top of the Blackdown Hills without incident. Such is the difference between life and death.

It is said that the plane had been stripped down to its bare essentials for the long flight and that the men were packed tightly into her, sitting side by side upon the floor of the aircraft.

I acknowledge the help given to me by Hilary Cummings and the Buckland St Mary branch of the Royal British Legion in researching this crash site.

The airmen who lost their lives were:

Pilot Anthony Wize*, buried at Newark.

Flying Officer Gordon Jenkins Myers, buried at Armley Cemetery, Leeds.

Ktp-pil (Flight Lieutenant) Leopold Mieleck aged thirty-four,* Ilminster Cemetery, Somerset.

Por.-narwig (Pilot Officer) Stanislaw Kleyber aged twenty-five,* Ilminster Cemetery, Somerset (incorrectly spelt as Kleybor on his tombstone).

Sierz-mech.poki (Flight Sergeant) Jan Brzesinski aged twenty-five,* Ilminster Cemetery, Somerset.

* Polish crew

Passengers:

MZ/13494 Major Henry William Gilbert Staunton, Indian Medical Service, aged thirty-seven. He is buried in the Yeovil Cemetery.

1117 Captain Herbert Cecil Buck MC, 1st Punjab Regiment. During the war he had been a member of the Special Air Service and was aged twenty-eight when he died. He was cremated at Reading Crematorium and is remembered on Panel 1.

E/C7914 Lieutenant Peter James Biles, Royal Indian Army Service Corps, aged twenty-two. He is buried in the Yeovil Cemetery.

E/C10780 Lieutenant Arthur George Quick, Indian Signal Corps, aged twenty-six. He is buried in the North Petherton Cemetery.

14621486 Signalman Anthony John Birch, aged twenty. He is buried in the St Lawrence churchyard, West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

14902515 Signalman Robert Charles Anderson, aged nineteen. He is buried in the Yeovil Cemetery.

14311367 Signalman Roland Oswin Anderson, aged nineteen. He is buried in the Yeovil Cemetery.

14216739 Signalman James Henry Attwood, aged twenty-two. He is buried in the Marlow Cemetery, Buckinghamshire.

14649020 Signalman John William Alexander Brewis, aged twenty-two. He was cremated at the Warriston Crematorium, Edinburgh, and is remembered on Panel 1.

14366015 Signalman William Armstrong Charlton, aged twenty-one. He is buried in the Mere Knolls Cemetery, Sunderland.

14957177 Signalman Arthur Edwin Clark, aged eighteen. He is buried in the Greenford Park Cemetery.

2368080 Signalman Laurence James Curry, aged twenty-four. He is buried in the Yew Tree Roman Catholic Cemetery, Liverpool.

14646239 Signalman Herbert Donovan, aged twenty. He is buried in the St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Leytonstone.

14622999 Signalman Leonard Henry Downes, age unknown. He is buried in the Manor Park Cemetery.

14939236 Signalman Leslie Raymond Dyer, aged nineteen. He was cremated at the Brighton (Woodvale) Crematorium and is remembered on Panel 2.

14916092 Signalman Peter Brown Fairbairn, aged nineteen. He is buried in the Edinburgh Eastern Cemetery.

14945626 Signalman Ronald Douglas Farrance, age unknown. He is buried in the Stone Cemetery, Dartford, Kent.

14394238 Signalman Frederick Walter Gent, age unknown. He is buried in the Kimberworth (St Thomas) churchyard.

14948895 Signalman Roy E.C. Williams, aged eighteen. He was cremated at the Manchester Crematorium and is remembered on Panel 23.

14913071 Signalman Owen Williams, aged eighteen. He is buried in the Yeovil Cemetery.

2392783 Driver Brian Williams Fox, aged nineteen. He is buried in the Atherstone Cemetery, North Warwickshire.

5 December 1945 • Chance Vought Corsair IV • Serial Number Not Known • Number 768 Naval Air Squadron • Home Base – HMS Dipper • Henstridge, Somerset

Temporary Sub Lieutenant (Air) James Todd Millar RNVR was detached to RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset, for deck-landing training. During one of these practices his aircraft crashed at sea and astern of HMS Ravager. His body was not recovered and he is remembered at Bay 6, Panel 39 of the Lee-on-Solent memorial. He was the son of James and Margaret Millar, of Cowdenbeath, Fife.

6 December 1945 • Chance Vought F3A-1 Corsair III • Serial Number JS769 • Number 768 Naval Air Squadron • Home Base – HMS Dipper • Henstridge, Somerset

Temporary Sub Lieutenant (Air) Leonard Rawsthorne RNVR was detached to RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset, for deck-landing training. His aircraft was lost when it carried away the barriers of HMS Ravager and went into the sea. He was reported as ‘Missing Presumed Killed’ and his body was never recovered. He is remembered in Bay 6, on Panel 39 of the Lee-on-Solent memorial.

1946

30 January 1946 • Supermarine Type 358 Seafire F.III • Serial Number NN498 • Number 759 Naval Air Squadron • Home Base – HMS Heron • RNAS Yeovilton • Ilchester, Somerset

Temporary Sub Lieutenant (Air) Frank Chappell Eccles of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve was killed on a routine training mission in Somerset. His aircraft dived into the ground 2 miles west of Henstridge, Somerset.7 He was the son of Joseph Maylott Eccles and May Eccles of Ripon. His final resting place can be found at the cemetery in Ripon, Yorkshire, and is located in Section H, Grave 371.

This particular aircraft site was excavated by the Marches Aviation Society in 2007. For a full description of this historical dig log on to www.redkitebooks.co.uk/aa and navigate to Excavations/2007/Seafire Yeovilton.

28 February 1946 • Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX • Serial Number MA579 • Number 58 Officers Training Unit • Home Base – RAF Poulton • Cheshire

The engine of this plane cut out in flight due to a fuel failure and it belly landed in a field 1 mile north of Dunkerton in Somerset.8 The pilot successfully escaped from the stricken aeroplane.

7 March 1946 • Supermarine Spitfire • Serial Number Not Known • Squadron Not Known • Home Base – RAF Colerne • Wiltshire

Flight Lieutenant S. Lerche crash-landed his Spitfire into a field near Westbury Farm, Tinley near Bath.9 The plane was badly damaged when it slid along a field leaving a wing behind. The aircraft finished up with a twisted fuselage after going through a hedge and into a field on the other side. The pilot had stayed with his aircraft rather than bale out as he wanted to bring it down safely. He walked away from the incident.

22 July 1946 • Supermarine Seafire F.III • Serial Number NN349 • Squadron Storage • Home Base – HMS Heron • RNAS Yeovilton • Ilchester, Somerset

Temporary Sub Lieutenant (A) Edward Graham Mortimer, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, was on a test flight in this aircraft when it crashed into the sea 100 yards east of Lulworth Cove after suffering an engine failure.10 He is listed as ‘Missing Presumed Killed’ and was aged thirty-nine when he died.

Edward was the son of Samuel Reginald and Annie Beatrice Mortimer and also the husband of Leslie Irene Mortimer of Hook-with-Warsash, Hampshire. His name is recorded on the Lee-on-Solent memorial Panel 41 of Bay 6.

12 November 1946 • D.H.103 Hornet F.1 • Serial Number PX229 • Royal Aircraft Establishment • Home Base – Farnborough Airfield • Hampshire

This aircraft was on a ferry flight to the Torpedo Development Unit at Weston-super-Mare and struck some trees near Warren Farm, Charterhouse in Somerset, during misty conditions. The crashing aircraft then carried on over the valley and into the hill on the other side, leaving a large crater. Its approximate location was at Grid Reference ST498562. It is reported that the pilot had failed to check for the weather conditions before he commenced his flight.11

Lieutenant Commander Thomas George Bentley from HMS Daedalus was killed in the accident. He is buried in the Haslar Royal Naval Cemetery, Gosport, Hampshire, and can be found in grave G.11.17.

I acknowledge the help of Chris Collins for the grid reference and some of the details of this event.

22 November 1946 • Douglas Boston III • Serial Number AL467 • Air Torpedo Development Unit • Home Base – RAF Gosport • Hampshire

On its approach to RAF Locking, near Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, on a mission to collect stores, this aircraft flew over the road that passed along the perimeter of the airfield.12 The pilot of this aircraft had recently been in another aircraft accident, although he had been the co-pilot of the plane concerned.

There were the normal signs on the road cautioning drivers about the dangers of low-flying aircraft. These were not obligatory signs but rather a warning to road users so that any drivers would not be startled by a low-flying aircraft. To land at RAF Locking, the Bostons had to come in very low, so any driver would have been unlikely to have seen any approaching aircraft.

It was a Friday and servicemen were eagerly getting away on weekend leave. At that time dusk was also approaching. As three double-decker buses, fully loaded with airmen, drove along the road travelling towards the local railway station, the undercarriage of the descending aircraft hit the middle bus in the line. There were approximately fifty-seven men on the bus at the time. The catastrophe immediately killed seven airmen and another one died later. The strike was so sudden that the aircraft’s undercarriage carried away the body of an airman with it. It also seriously injured another fifteen airmen, with others suffering cuts and bruises, mostly sustained from glass from the bus windows. Amazingly, the bus managed to remain in an upright position.

The aircraft landed on grass on its port side as the port undercarriage had been ripped off. Those in the aircraft survived the accident.

The following airmen lost their lives in this tragic incident:

2291223 AC1 (Aircraftman First Class) Sidney Gordon Fairweather, aged nineteen. He was the son of Ernest and Violet Ellen Fairweather and he came from Shepherd’s Bush, London. He is buried in the Mortlake Cemetery. He died of his injuries later on during that same day.

2291411 AC1 James Halliday, aged twenty-two. He was the son of Hugh McCallum Halliday and Agnes Halliday, of Dumbarton. He is buried in the Dumbarton Cemetery.

1598231 AC1 Eric Wilfred Bellamy, aged twenty-five. He is buried in the Hull Northern Cemetery.

2260394 AC2 (Aircraftman Second Class) Edward Jackson, aged twenty-six. He was the son of Charles Toynbee Jackson and Martha Jackson, of Nantwich, Cheshire. He is buried in the Manchester (Gorton) Cemetery.

2296456 AC2 Ernest Henry Pearson, aged twenty-three. He is buried in the Ewell (St Mary) churchyard extension.

2285878 AC1 Roy Lawton, aged eighteen. He was the son of John Lawton and Frances Caroline Lawton, of New Ferry, Birkenhead. He is buried in the Bromborough (St Barnabus) churchyard.

2258573 AC2 Frank Wilson, aged twenty-two. He was the son of Reginald Hugh Wilson and Elise Wilson. He was also the husband of Nancy Wilson, of Holmfirth. He is buried in the Upperthong (St John’s) churchyard.

3059401 AC2 James Ithel Davis, aged twenty. He was the son of Thomas William Stanley Davis and Margaret Jane Davis, of Llandilo. He is buried in the Llandilo Fawr (St Teilo) churchyard.

1947

3 January 1947 • Douglas C-47A-1-DK • Serial Number G-AGJU • British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) • Heathrow Airport • London

This aircraft first flew in 1943. It had an original American number of 92374 (c/n12169) before going to the RAF as FZ614. It was then sold to BOAC to become G-AGJU.

On landing at Whitchurch, with only a crew of three on board during a positioning flight, it somehow ground looped. The crew escaped unhurt but the damage sustained by the aircraft was so great that it was written off.

23 January 1947 • Supermarine Spitfire L.F.IX • Serial Number MH496 • Fighter Command Communications Squadron • Home Base – An airfield near London

The aircraft was on a flight from its home base and heading for RAF Chivenor. Shortly before midday and near Minehead, the engine caught fire and failed at 4,500ft. The pilot made a forced landing in a field near Larkberrow Farm, 3 miles from Oare (or Oareford – written about in R.D. Blackmore’s Lorna Doone) and approximately 5 miles west of Minehead. The fire amazingly extinguished itself. The pilot was unhurt and walked to a public telephone to report the incident.

During the war this aircraft was part of the Belgian air force and was in operational use by No 350 (Belgian) Squadron RAF, who were disbanded on 15 October 1946.

Source: Bristol Evening Post.

6 July 1947 • Supermarine Spitfire L.F.XVI • Serial Number RW348 • Number 501 (County of Gloucester) Squadron RAF • Home Base – RAF Filton • Bristol

The engine cut out as the rear fuel tank ran dry.13 The pilot did not change tanks or switch on the fuel-booster pump. He made an approach for an emergency landing but just before touchdown the engine recovered. Because the pilot had left the throttle open after the engine had cut out, there was a sudden and unexpected increase of power that spoiled the pilot’s approach. A wheels-up landing was then made when the engine suddenly cut again. The aircraft was written off.

15 October 1947 • Westland Wyvern I Prototype Production • Serial Number TS371 • Westland Aircraft Works • Home Base – Westland’s Airfield • Yeovil, Somerset

This particular aircraft crashed near Bailey Ridge Farm, Yetminster in Dorset, killing the pilot, Squadron Leader Peter J. Garner, aged twenty-five years. He had logged some 950 hours’ flying experience. The squadron leader was on a test flight, which included air-to-air photographs for Flight magazine photographer, John Yoxall, when the engine suffered a failure of the pitch translation bearing whilst returning to Yeovil. The rear unit of the propeller then moved into superfine pitch, which led to a sudden loss of torque. Through superb flying skills the squadron leader made a successful forced landing in a field of stubble.

Unfortunately, he was rendered unconscious by a section of the prop blade which penetrated the cockpit as the aircraft hit the ground. The engine of the aircraft was thrown about 50 yards away from the burning aircraft. The pilot died in the fire that followed the crash. He left behind a wife and two-year-old daughter.

Westland’s chief test pilot, Harald Penrose, was flying another Wyvern close by and witnessed the incident. He immediately radioed back to Yeovil for help and a Sikorsky helicopter containing a rescue crew was at the crash site within several minutes, but the blaze was so fierce that there was little they could do.

As a tribute, Flight magazine published the final pictures of the pilot flying his ill-fated aircraft on 23 October 1947, on pages 466 and 467.

There has been some confusion as to the exact location of this crash.14 The AAIB (Air Accidents Investigation Branch) report places it near the small village of Leigh, Dorset, whilst the company records claim that it happened near Cattistock. The location of the crash, Bailey Ridge Farm, is in the Yetminster post code area but physically nearer to the village of Leigh, about a kilometre from the village and north-east from it.

7 December 1947 • Supermarine Spitfire L.F.XVIe • Serial Number TE314 • Number 614, (County of Glamorgan) Squadron RAF • Home Base – RAF Llandow • Glamorgan, South Wales

This aircraft was flying as the No 3, and collided with the lead Spitfire L.F.XVIe Serial No RW355 during a cross-over manoeuvre. The pilot, Sergeant Hodgson, successfully baled out at 3,500ft and he came to earth near Ilchester. His aircraft crashed in a ploughed field belonging to Benedict’s Farm at Long Sutton, Somerset.

Source: Western Gazette.

7 December 1947 • Supermarine Spitfire L.F.XVIe • Serial Number RW355 • Number 614 (County of Glamorgan) Squadron RAF • Home Base – RAF Llandow • Glamorgan, South Wales

This lead aircraft collided with the number 3 of the flight, Spitfire L.F.XVI, Serial No TE314. A total of three Spitfires had been practising strafing runs and then broke in a cross over. The pilot of TE314 reported that the other Spitfire flew vertically in front of him. The propeller from the sergeant pilot’s plane sliced through the tail of RW355 and it broke off. This aircraft came to earth at Othery, Somerset, coming to rest in a ploughed field. On its way down it brought down three power lines and ended up literally just a couple of yards away from a steel pylon. The tail part of the plane landed some 200 yards away.

187267 Pilot Officer David Edward Morgan, Royal Air Force (Auxiliary Air Force) was found lying 10 yards away from his plane with his parachute pack close to him; it had not fully deployed. Unfortunately, the pilot officer broke his neck and fractured his leg on impact, killing him instantly. The aircraft had burst into flames and was burnt out.

He is buried in the Tyncoed Congregational chapelyard, Brecknockshire, and his grave can be located south-west of the chapel.

Source: Western Gazette.

1948

7 March 1948 • Supermarine Spitfire L.F.XVI • Serial Number RW391 • Number 501 (County of Gloucester) Squadron RAF • Home Base – RAF Filton • Bristol

During its landing run, the aircraft developed a swing which the pilot failed to correct.15 It went off the runway and tipped on to its nose, causing the aircraft to be written off. The pilot was uninjured. By this time there was a surplus of Second World War aircraft and some were written off that could have been easily repaired.

17 April 1948 • Supermarine Spitfire L.F.XVI • Serial Number SL675 • Number 614 (County of Glamorgan) Squadron RAF • Home Base – RAF Llandow • Glamorgan, South Wales

The aircraft was seen emerging from cloud in a dive and it appeared to be trying to level off.16 It struck the water and broke up over Nell’s Point in the Bristol Channel, just off the coast of Glamorgan. The pilot was killed. The cause of the accident was never properly discovered.

195753 Pilot Officer Howard Hughes Evans was born on 6 June 1924 and was aged twenty-three years when he died.

4 June 1948 • North American Harvard IIB (AT-16) • Serial Number KF501 • Number 799 Naval Air Squadron • Home Base – HMS Heron • Yeovilton, Somerset

Lieutenant (E) William Eric Riseborough lived at Manor Farm, Hardington Mandeville. He was the tutor of this dual-controlled plane and was instructing student Lieutenant Michael Rogers RN in blind flying. The tutor told the student to take control of the plane from the back seat.

Whilst waiting for the signal to take over from the tutor, the student noticed that the nose of the aircraft had dropped. The student thought that the tutor still had control and was not worried until the aircraft started to go into a slow, spinning dive only a couple of hundred feet from the ground.

The coroner recorded that the tutor had thought that the student had taken over control. Only when he realised that the tutor was not in control of the plane did Lieutenant Rogers grab hold of the control stick and pulled it sharply back, thereby preventing the aircraft from crashing nose first. The plane recovered slightly and levelled off, but a wing clipped some trees and crashed on the moor near Long Sutton, Somerset. The student escaped the aircraft and managed to pull the tutor clear of the wreckage. As the aircraft crashed it snapped off both of its wings, and because of this the fuselage ploughed across a field and did not catch fire.

Lieutenant Riseborough was killed in the crash and is buried at the London Road Cemetery in Ilford, Essex. He was born on 22 May 1922 and was aged twenty-six when he died.

Source: Western Gazette.

7 July 1948 • D.H.98 Sea Mosquito T.R.33 • Serial Number TW284 • Air Torpedo Development Unit • Home Base – RAF Gosport • Hampshire

The starboard wing of this aircraft suddenly folded up as it became severely overstressed during low-level aerobatics.17 It crashed at the eastern end of the Weston-super-Mare airport. The pilot and crew were both killed when the aircraft exploded on impact.

39032 Squadron Leader David Alistair Robertson DFC (commanding officer), aged thirty-one, was born on 14 October 1916 and was cremated at the Arnos Vale Crematorium in Bristol.

50646 Flight Lieutenant Anthony George Nichols, aged twenty-eight, was born on 27 April 1920 and is buried at the Weston-super-Mare Cemetery.

14 October 1948 • Bristol 164 Brigand B.I • Serial Number RH824 • Home Base – RAF Filton • Bristol

Squadron Leader Douglas Dennison Weightman DFC was the chief test pilot of the Air Registrations Board (now the Civil Aviation Authority) and aged thirty-six. He was at Bristol specifically to test the Brigand and on loan to cover for staff depletion through sickness and holidays. He was making a second production test flight when the port engine over-sped. All four of the propeller blades on this engine detached, severing part of the nose structure and then collided with the starboard propeller. This overstressed the engine mount and the engine fell away from the wing.18

Although Squadron Leader Weightman skilfully managed to make a forced landing at Mill Farm near Northwick in Gloucestershire, he unfortunately hit a tree and crashed into a ditch. Despite being pulled from the cockpit of the burning aircraft by nearby farm workers, he sadly died from his injuries shortly after his rescue. He had 3,500 hours of flight recorded in his log on eighty different types of aircraft and had been demobbed from the RAF in 1946.

1949

23 March 1949 • Hawker Sea Fury F.B.11 • Serial Number VW580 • Number 802 Naval Air Squadron • Home Base – RNAS Yeovilton • Near Ilchester, Somerset

During oxygen-climbing practice over Mounts Bay, Cornwall, the propeller detached itself from the aircraft due to the engine over-speeding and it ditched into the sea.20 The pilot, Lieutenant Commander R.W. Kearseley, was safely rescued.

6 May 1949 • Bristol 170 Freighter 21 • Serial Number G-AIFF • Bristol Aeroplane Company • Home Base – Filton • Bristol

This prototype Bristol 170 Mk 21 aircraft was performing tests to obtain engine and propeller data under specific climbing conditions. It was possible that the RAF were interested in the aircraft.19 The aircraft took off from Filton airfield at 10.03 a.m. At 11.10 a.m., the commander of a surfaced submarine, HMS Truculent (Lieutenant A.C. Chalmers), saw the aircraft crash into the sea. He reported that he had seen no sign of a fire.

A large object, thought to be part of the wing, was seen fluttering down separately. This aircraft was lost in an extreme-yaw, single-engine climb due to structural failure of the tail fin. The accident occurred approximately 26km from the Portland Lighthouse.

The names of the seven crew members who lost their lives were: Mr J.A.C. Northway, aged forty-one, the company’s assistant chief test pilot; Mr John M. Radcliffe, aged forty-seven, head of the Flight Research Department; Mr E.J.N. Archbold, aged twenty-seven; Mr R.M. Pollard, aged thirty-five; Mr R.H. Daniels, aged forty; Mr C.W.E. Flook, aged thirty-six; and Mr J.L. Gundry, aged thirty-seven.

HMS Truculent quickly carried out a search of the area and was joined by the frigate HMS Zephyr and shortly thereafter by a search-and-rescue (SAR) helicopter from Portsmouth. The submarine located the bodies of Mr E.J. Archbold of Filton, Bristol, and Mr J.L. Gundry of Almondsbury, Bristol. The bodies were transferred to HMS Zephyr and taken ashore. The other five crew members were not recovered from the sea.

Another Type 21, G-AHJJ, crashed under very similar circumstances some ten months later, in March 1950, near Cowbridge, Glamorgan. Because of these two accidents a longer and stronger dorsal fin was manufactured, resulting in the production of the Bristol 170 Freighter Type 170 Mk 31.

10 May 1949 • Hawker Sea Fury F.B.11 • Serial Number VW578 • Number 802 Naval Air Squadron • Home Base – RNAS Yeovilton/RNAS Culdrose • Near Ilchester, Somerset and Helston, Cornwall

On return to RNAS Culdrose, the undercarriage of this aircraft failed to lower.21 The pilot attempted to abandon the aircraft but was unsuccessful in his attempt to get out of the cockpit. The aircraft came down into the sea about 21 miles off Pendennis Castle, Cornwall. A Sea Otter A.S.R.II (Naval), Serial No RD913 of the Air/Sea Rescue Flight, St Merryn, was sent to rescue the downed flier but damaged its starboard float in the unsuccessful rescue attempt. It sank and the crew were rescued by a motor launch from Falmouth.

Lieutenant Ronald Bernard Francis was born on 27 May 1924 and was aged twenty-four years when he lost his life.

24 June 1949 • Hawker Sea Fury F.B.11 • Serial Number VW235 • Number 50 Training Air Group • Home Base – HMS Heron • RNAS Yeovilton, Ilchester, Somerset

This aircraft crashed following a power failure whilst it was performing aerobatics.22 The aircraft crash-landed in a field of mangol wurzels near to the perimeter fence of the airfield shortly after midday. Naval personnel were quickly on the scene and helped rescue the pilot, Lieutenant H. Umpleby, whose home was in Bradford, Yorkshire. He was taken to the nearby RNAS Yeovilton sickbay where he was treated for minor injuries and shock.

Two farm labourers were working in the field at the time and had to scramble to safety hurriedly as the crashing aircraft plummeted to earth towards them.

Source: Western Gazette, 1 July 1949.

27 July 1949 • Avro 652A Anson • Serial Number NK734 • Number 66 Group CF RAF • Home Base – RAF Turnhouse • Scotland

On landing at RAF Locking, near Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, one of the aircraft’s tyres burst.23 The aircraft then careered off the runway and its undercarriage collapsed. The damage was such that the aircraft was written off. This aircraft was being used by cadets at their Air Experience Camp. Luckily there were no casualties amongst them.

24 October 1949 • Hawker Sea Fury F.B.11 • Serial Number VR945 • Number 50 Training Air Group • Home Base – RNAS Yeovilton • Near Ilchester, Somerset

This aircraft crashed on landing and was burnt out.24 No other details are known. There were no recorded air-crash deaths that day other than one in HMS Falcon, which was located in Hal Fal, Malta. It is therefore assumed that the pilot escaped.

31 October 1949 • Westland Wyvern T.F.2 Pre-Production Aircraft • Serial Number VP113 • Westland Aircraft Works • Home Base – Westland’s Airfield • Yeovil, Somerset

A Westland Wyvern airscrew turbine fighter prototype aircraft crashed on two semi-detached council houses near Westland’s airfield at Yeovil, Somerset, demolishing one of them.

The aircraft had taken off from the company’s base at RAF Merryfield, where it would have normally returned on completion of the flight. While flying over Yeovil the pilot got into difficulties and attempted to land after giving the alarm to those on the ground.

Those killed were the Westland Company’s assistant chief test pilot, Squadron Leader Michael Adrian Graves DFC, who lived at Boleyn House, Ash; a child, Ann Wilkins, aged five, the daughter of Mr and Mrs A.A. Wilkins of No 98 Westland Road, who was riding her pedal cycle in the road at the time of the crash; Mrs W. Brown, aged fifty-four and a mother of seven children, of No 30 Westland Road. Her house was severely damaged by the crashing aeroplane.

Another woman, Mrs Hockey, was taken to hospital with serious burns after being trapped in the blazing remains of her house at No 28 Westland Road. Unfortunately she did not recover from her injuries and died in hospital during the early hours of 2 November 1949.

The Western Gazette reported at the time:

One eyewitness said that there was a trail of burning fuel ‘about 20ft to 30ft long behind the aircraft as it crashed.’ The aircraft had been up for about half an hour on a routine test flight and, as it was coming down, in the words of another Observer, ‘it plunged’ into the council houses, which are close to the airfield. The aircraft experienced engine failure following a high-speed low-level pass across the airfield and climb to 2,500ft. He attempted a crash-landing on the airfield after crossing the boundary at 200 miles per hour but touched down three-quarters of way across the airfield and tragically overshot into a housing estate.

Source: The Times and Western Gazette.