Aircraft Down: Landings, Crash Landings and Rescues

by Alec Brew

  Finally, on the night of 29/30 April he had more success. He took off at 22.04 hrs on Operation Luckyshot, and crossed the French coast at 00.18 hrs, then setting course for the River Meuse. The target was found, and when the correct lights were lit they dropped the container and the pigeons they were carrying on target. Two men were seen to run to the container in the moonlight. They then set course for home, landing jubilantly at 05.10 hrs.

  The successful drop was followed quickly by two more. On 1/2 May Jack flew Whitley Z9159 on Operation Dastard. His crew map-read their way at 2000 feet to La Ferté, and then set course for the target. Lights were seen immediately and a container dropped. They then flew to Beauvais where a consignment of pigeons was dropped. Then on the night of 24/25 May they performed a second drop under Operation Luckyshot, crossing the coast at Le Crotoy, and going via the River Meuse to the drop zone. The containers were dropped from 600 feet when the lights were spotted.

  On the 29/30 May, a drop for Operation Periwig once more had to be abandoned shortly after take-off because of engine trouble. This was repeated the following night when Jack took off in Whitley Z9287 at 22.13 hrs on Operation Mandamus, but experienced engine trouble once more and landed back at Tempsford at 23.44 hrs.

  During May the French SOE units had been destroyed by German Intelligence, and until September there were very few pick-ups or drops in France. Some of the Whitley crews went on normal bombing missions, to keep their hands in.

  On 31 March Jack Owen was sent to Holland instead in an operation code-named Catarrh. Only a few days earlier, on the night of 27/28 March another Whitley, with Pilot Officer Widdup in command, had been lost on a supply drop for Operation Catarrh. Widdup had also dropped an agent code-named Watercress, but he was captured almost immediately. The Whitley had gone missing on its way back over the North Sea.

  Jack flew Whitley Z9288, taking off at 22.45 hrs for the Zuider Zee. They had trouble finding the target in poor visibility, but did so eventually and the containers were dropped. Whether they actually reached the Dutch Resistance is open to question. A previous drop for Operation Catarrh by Pilot Officer Russell on 23 April, had also been delayed by lights that were difficult to see, having been placed in a wood. The containers eventually fell, straight into the hands of the Germans, who were waiting for them. The Germans had a flak battery sited to fire if the SOE realised the Dutch organisation had been compromised, and sent an aircraft to bomb the target. When only containers dropped from the sky the German AA guns remained silent so as not to give away the fact that they were there.

  On the night of 3/4 May Jack’s crew returned to France with a second attempt to drop supplies under the code-name Operation Mandamus. They crossed the coast at the mouth of the River Meuse at 00.20 hrs, but could not find the drop zone, and the mission was abandoned.

  On the 25/26 June they flew straight to the drop zone in Whitley Z9202 for Operation Spaniels, and dropped their containers. Unfortunately, one of the containers failed to release and they had to bring it back.

  The following night they had another drop under Operation Luckyshot, which was living up to its code-name. In an almost standard mission they took off at 22.40 hrs, crossed the coast at Le Crotoy at 00.23 hrs, flew to the River Meuse, ran in straight to the target and dropped the containers once the lights were seen. Once more, one of the containers hung up, and Jack turned the Whitley round for a second run. The reception committee seemed to have gone already, so they took the container back to Tempsford.

  By June 1942 No. 138 Squadron had only four Whitleys ready for operations with another held in reserve. They were gradually being completely replaced by Halifaxes, and by June there were ten of these on charge with two more in reserve. Previously, the Halifaxes had only been used for long-range operations, but now their greater capacity was being exploited even on operations to northern France. Bomber Command had ceased using Whitleys completely by now, and the two Special Duties Squadrons would also soon give them up.

  It was not for another month, on the night of 25/26 July that Jack, by now promoted to flight sergeant, and about to be promoted again to pilot officer, had another operation. It was to be his last. The Whitley used was once more to be his usual Z9282. His crew, which might have been his regular crew, though the Squadron’s Operations Record Book, does not give details, included Sergeant D Thornton as second pilot. The observer was Sergeant J Whalley, the wireless-operator was Flight Sergeant WG Rock and the rear gunner was an Irishman, Sergeant PH Avery.

  They took off from Tempsford for a drop zone in the Calvados region of north-west France. Landfall would probably have been between Coburg and Ouistreham, where the coastline formed a natural funnel, leading them in, and they avoided the heavy anti-aircraft batteries at Le Havre and the lighter flak around Caen.

  45. The graves of Jack Owen’s crew in Vire cemetery, just after the War.

  When they reached the area of the drop they could see no lights. Jack handed over control to Thornton and went back into the fuselage to try and see the ground better. As they circled at low altitude looking for the lights, Jack suddenly realised that they were much too low. He called over the intercom for Thornton to get the nose up, but it was too late. The Whitley crashed into high ground. Only Sergeant Avery in the rear turret survived the crash, and he was made a prisoner of war.

  The other four crew members were buried in the local town cemetery at Vire, with simple wooden crosses. A number of Germans were buried in a line behind them. After the War the Germans were moved but Jack Owen and his crew remained where they were, in graves carefully looked after by the people of Vire, who they had come to help all those years before. The crosses were replaced by standard RAF gravestones, and Jack Owen’s reads:

  1166741 Flight Sergeant J Owen, Pilot, Royal Air Force

  26th July 1942, Age 21

  To a beautiful life came a sudden end, he died as he lived, ever yone’s friend

  46. The graves as they are kept today.

  CHAPTER 12

  Down on the Dark Peaks

  Even in the middle of summer there are wild and inhospitable places in England, where an aircraft can crash-land and the crew await rescue in vain, places where a crashed aircraft can lie undiscovered for weeks. This is the story of one such aircraft, and the crew who died of exposure while waiting for rescue.

  The 338th production Boulton Paul Defiant was serial N3378. A standard Mark I, it was delivered to No. 19 MU, the Aircraft Storage Unit at St Athan, on 29 November 1940. On 8 December it was issued to No. 255 Squadron at Kirton in Lindsey in Lincolnshire.

  No. 255 Squadron had only just been formed, on 23 November, at Kirton in Lindsey. It was one of two dedicated night-fighter squadrons to be equipped with Defiants formed that day, the other being No. 256 at Catterick. With the Luftwaffe beginning its night attacks, which were to become known as the Blitz, the Defiant was the best night-fighter available in any numbers, faster than the Blenheim and more effective than single-seaters. The two day-fighters squadrons, No. 141 and No. 264, and a new Polish squadron, No. 307, had all just been switched to night-time operations, and now No. 255 and No. 256 Squadrons joined them. During the winter two Hurricane night-fighter squadrons, No. 96 and No. 151, were also to receive Defiants.

  No. 255 Squadron became operational on 5 January 1941, but did not fly its first patrols until the 9th, and did not have its first contact until 15 January when Flight Lieutenant RM Trousdale and Sergeant Chunn saw a Dornier Do 215. However, they did not get within range before it disappeared in the dark of the night. On the 10 February this same crew saw a Heinkel He 111 over the Humber and fired three bursts, claiming it as a probable, one of two claimed by the Squadron that night.

  The Defiant usually flown by Trousdale and Chunn was N3378, but it was the squadron commander, Squadron Leader Roddick Lee Smith, and his gunner, Pilot Officer Eric Farnes, who were flying it on 5 May 1941 when it had its first victory. Taking off at 01.05 hrs they encountered a Junkers Ju 88, and shot it down s
eaward of Donna Nook. Smith was a regular officer, having joined the RAF on 15 March 1915. After a spell with No. 19 Squadron he had been transferred to the Fleet Air Arm, flying floatplanes at Calshot, and then Nimrods and Ospreys, both onshore and aboard HMS Furious. On 10 June 1940 he was posted to No. 151 Squadron as a Flight Commander flying Hurricanes.

  He destroyed a Do 17 on 13 August and later claimed two more probables and two damaged. On 24 November 1940 he was posted to Kirton in Lindsey to command No. 255 Squadron.

  His usual air gunner Eric Farnes was another Battle of Britain veteran. He had joined the RAF in 1940 and was posted to the second Defiant squadron, No. 141, at Turnhouse in July. The Squadron went south on 10 July and on 19 July they were ordered to cover a convoy off Dover. The nine Defiants that took off were bounced by thirty Bf 109s, and though four of the German fighters were shot down, so were six of the Defiants. Farnes’ aircraft, L7001, was badly hit, and Farnes baled out. His pilot, Flight Lieutenant MJ Loudon, was severely wounded, but managed to crash-land the aircraft near Hawkinge. Farnes was rescued from the sea uninjured and later posted to No. 255 Squadron.

  The usual pilot for N3378, Flight Lieutenant Richard Macklow Trousdale, was a New Zealander. He had applied for a Short Service Commission in February 1938 and sailed for England on 1 February 1939. On completion of his training he was posted to No. 266 Squadron flying Spitfires. Over Dunkirk he claimed a Bf 110 probable kill on 2 June, and in the Battle of Britain destroyed a Bf 109 on 16 August. He claimed a Bf 109 probable on 18 August, shared a Do 17 on 7 September and shot down another Bf 109 on 29 October. He had been posted to No. 255 Squadron as a flight commander on 23 November, and teamed up with Sergeant Chunn as his air gunner.

  On 8 May, three days after Smith’s success, Trousdale and Chunn were back on board N3378 when they saw a German bomber at 20,000 feet but were unable to catch it.The following night, No. 255 Squadron had its most successful night ever, shooting down six German bombers when a large force attacked Humberside. Trousdale and Chunn were again flying N3378 and shot down two of the Germans in 10 minutes. They shot down a Heinkel He 111 a few miles south-east of Leconfield at 01.40 hrs, and then at 01.50 hrs shot down another over the North Sea.

  On 15 May the Squadron moved from Kirton in Lindsey to another Lincolnshire airfield at Hibaldstow, and from August began converting to Beaufighters. The Defiants still flew patrols for some weeks and N3378 was used by other aircrew. For instance, on 8 August Pilot Officer Ballantine and Sergeant Bayliss took off on a patrol at 23.20 hrs and were vectored after a raider, but were unable to find it. On 17 August Pilot Officer Clarke and Sergeant Allen flew on a patrol in N3378 over Flamborough Head. The following night Sergeant Turner and Sergeant Bedford flew a patrol in it from 22.50 hrs to 00.10 hrs.

  Pilot Officer James Craig, a Scotsman, had joined the Squadron on its formation, his regular gunner being Bert Hill. His mechanic was another Scotsman, Bob Robertson, and his airframe rigger was John Hill. They flew their share of patrols over the winter of 1940/41 but were unable to make any contacts. Bob Robertson became worried about his wife, after he had not heard from her for a long time, during the period when Lancashire cities were being bombed. James Craig arranged to air-test his Defiant, and took Robertson in the turret, on what was to be his first flight.

  The ‘air-test’ happened to take them over Lancashire and Craig landed at Burtonwood, which was only 20 minutes away from Robertson’s house. At the far end of the runway, out of sight of the control tower, Robertson levered his 6 foot frame out of the turret, hopped down and ran for the perimeter fence. Craig returned to Lincolnshire without him. Robertson returned two days later, to face the charge of being absent without leave.

  With the conversion to Beaufighters almost complete, the Squadron stood down on 23 August, and many of its members went on leave. Craig took N3378 to Scotland to visit his parents, and gave another lift, this time to Leading Aircraftman George Hempstead, another one of the Squadron’s ground crew. They took off from Turnhouse on their return at 08.08 hrs on 29 August. About half an hour later, Craig contacted Kirton in Lindsey by radio and informed them that he was returning to base, presumably Hibaldstow, but he never arrived.

  The following day the Squadron sent up nine Beaufighters and a Defiant to search along the route he should have taken, and the Army Co-operation Squadron at York also contributed two aircraft. After 32 hours of flying nothing was found. There were further searches on 31 August, but on 1 September the weather was too bad for flying. Finally, on the 2 September three aircraft returned to the search but again nothing was found.

  It was not until 23 September that the crash site of N3378 was discovered, at Near Bleaklow Stones, in the Peak District, very near to the top of Bleaklow Moor. This was miles away from their logical route, which would have been down the east coast. David and Joe Shepherd, who had a farm in the Glossop area, came across the crash site, and the two men. They had survived the crash, and Craig had treated the more badly injured Hempstead. In the end, however, they had succumbed to their injuries and exposure, waiting for rescue.

  47. James Craig (right) with his parents in Edinburgh.

  Their bodies were taken down off the Moor to Glossop Police Station Mortuary, and Pilot Officer Craig was buried at Kirton in Lindsey on 26 September. The following day members of No. 10 Barrage Balloon Unit sent a message to No. 255 Squadron to say that they had visited the crash site and had found bullet holes in the wreckage, suggesting that this was due to enemy action.

  The reason for the aircraft being considerably off course had never been discovered. The ‘bullet’ holes suggested enemy action, but there were no known German aircraft operating over the north of England that day. It was rumoured that a Spitfire from one of the units operating in the Teesside area had fired on the Defiant by mistake, but some of the ‘bullet’ holes were in the Defiant’s radiator. It is hard to see how the aircraft could still have been flying over Derbyshire if it had lost all its coolant over Teesside, and even harder to see why Craig would not have tried to land immediately. No evidence to support this rumour has ever been found, the official inquiry stated simply that the aircraft hit high ground while flying in cloud.

  A far more likely reason for the aircraft being off course was that James Craig’s wife was living with her parents in Regent House, Belle Vue, Wakefield, just a few minutes’ flying time from the crash site. Craig would not have been the first pilot to make a detour to fly over a loved one’s house, and not the first to die as a result. The weather was generally good on 29 August 1941, but there was cloud lying on the Moors. The summit of Bleaklow Hill is 630 metres high, the crash site at Near Bleaklow Stones just north of the summit is at 600 metres.

  Climbing away from the Yorkshire side of the Pennines in cloud, Craig hit the moor a glancing blow only 100 feet from the top, the greatest damage being to the port side of the aircraft. Defiant N3378 was not the only aircraft to find that cloud can become very solid indeed over the Dark Peak; over fifty crash sites litter the Moor. Craig and Hempstead, as they dragged their broken bodies from the wrecked aircraft, must have been shocked both by the suddenness of the crash, and the abrupt silence of the mist-shrouded Moor.

  Even in August, Bleaklow Moor can be a cold and forbidding place, as I can testify myself. Even if Craig were capable of walking for help, he could easily have become lost in the mist and circled helplessly until collapsing. Staying with the aircraft was probably his best option, but the rescuers never came.

  Much of the wreckage of N3378 remained on the Moor, but with the emergence of aviation archeology as a popular pastime in the 1960s and 1970s, parts of it were taken away by enthusiasts from all over the country. The fin was removed by a gentleman in nearby Hadfield who had a particular reason: he had made Defiant fins during the War at Northern Aircraft Ltd. The intact starboard tailplane and elevator were carried down by someone from Hyde in Cheshire and the last 8 feet of rear fuselage was carried down by a group from Macclesfield. They carried
a wheel up the Moor with the intention of putting it in the surviving tailwheel fork and wheelbarrowing the fuselage down. But things were not as easy as that, and they ended up carrying it; with the extra weight of a tailwheel! The rear fuselage moved on to Kent and then to the Tangmere Aircraft Museum for a while, before ending up in Oxfordshire.

  An RAF Halton party recovering the engines from a Blackburn Botha wreck a quarter of a mile away also took down parts of N3378: the turret ring, windscreen, propeller hub and one blade and a couple of small panels, including an inspection panel with the serial stencilled on. They went into the RAF Museum storage unit at Cardington for the next 20 years.

  In 1993 the Boulton Paul Association, aware that there was only one surviving Defiant, N1671 in the RAF Museum, began collecting Defiant parts to create a display of the aircraft in the town of its origin. Having acquired the starboard tailplane and elevator, they quickly concentrated on tracking down further parts of N3378, and all the above mentioned parts were acquired over the next two years. In addition, they made the arduous trek up to Near Bleaklow Stones on several occasions to bring down what little remained, including parts of the starboard wing and the crushed and broken port side of the tailplane. To this they added parts from other Defiants, such as a turret cupola. In 1996 they were able to put on display ‘Wolverhampton’s own Defiant’ in an exhibition of Boulton Paul’s 60 years in the town.

  48. Undercarriage leg and engine of Defiant N3378 on Bleaklow Moor in 1996.

  The search goes on for further parts of N3378 and any other Defiant. In particular, they are seeking a section of wing from N3378, on which was at least half a roundel. It was reported at the site in the late 1970s, but has since disappeared. The creation of the world’s second complete Defiant seems unlikely, but as they already have far more of the aircraft than they ever thought possible, who knows!