ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 137949
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| Date: | Monday 29 December 1941 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: |  Supermarine Spitfire Mk Ia |
| Owner/operator: | 53 OTU RAF |
| Registration: | L1038 |
| MSN: | 253 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Peterstone, near Cardiff, Wales -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | RAF Llandow, Vale of Glamorgan |
Leroy Gover and J.D. Mause (known as Jack), flew together at Bakersfield California airport in August 1941. Gover and Mause and some others sailed to the UK together and joined 53 OTU in December, 1941. Gover was in A Flight and Mause in B Flight
Mause got lost in L1038 and running low on fuel made an undercarriage up forced landing, the aircraft being written off due to this accident.
Cat. C flying accident on 29/12/41. To Air Service Training Ltd for repairs. Recat. E 20/5/42 and written off the book
Details:
She first flew on the 29th of June 1939 and was one of the first three bladed aircraft type to be test flown by the chief test pilot, Mr Geoffrey Quill. She went to 611 squadron and arrived there on the 4th of July 1939.
611 squadron was formed on the 10th of February 1936 at RAF Hendon as an Auxiliary squadron. Their first RAF equipment was one Leyland heavy tender and one Morris light tender! The personnel compliment was one officer commanding and an adjutant along with five aircraftsmen. Their personnel compliment gradually rose and on the 18th of May 1936 the squadron received two Tutors, an already obsolete biplane for initial training, then they moved to RAF Speke.
The pre-war training and squadron build up progressed over the next two years. On the 13th of August the squadron moved to RAF Duxford for their annual training.
The next month, September the squadron learnt that Duxford was their ‘War Station’, here they inherited 13 mark 1 Spitfires, L1038 was one of the batches they had already been given. Their radio codes, L1038 was given ‘FY-P’. September the first the squadron was mobilized. 3rd of September at 11:00hrs Britain was at war with Nazi Germany!
L1038 was heavily involved in the ‘Phoney War’ flying home defensive patrols over the south coast. 29th of February 1940 L1038 was transferred to 64 squadron with her first patrol on the 30th of May and shot down a Dornier Do-17, then they were also involved in ‘Operation Dynamo’ (the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk).
L1038 didn’t fly often during June and July, but August the 12th she was in the hands of P/O Roberts on a dawn patrol and damaged a Dornier Do-215. P/O Roberts ended up landing at RAF Gatwick, re-fuelling, and flew back to home base. She was back up in the air on a Scramble in the afternoon, but nothing was seen.
She flew on the two following days in the hands of different pilots. Then on the 16th of August she was on a noon patrol in the hands of Sgt Mann, they were vectored onto a Staffel of Messerschmitt Bf-109’s over the south coast. Unfortunately, L1038 was damaged, and Sgt Mann was injured! But he managed to force land at RAF Hawkinge, she suffered cat’2 battle damage, but was able to be repaired and sent to an unrecorded Maintenance Unit for repair and storage. L1038 was handed over to 53OTU on the 23rd of July 1941.
On the 29th of December she was being flown by an American, P/O J. D. Mause of Myersville, Maryland. Who had been a member of the Royal Air Force for some months. He survived two minor prangs and went through early flight training in the US. He was on a training flight when he became lost in foul weather, he observed his instruments and was still in the area and dropped down to make a forced wheels up landing in heavy fog when the fuel ran out, the engine died and with the propeller ‘windmilling’, touched down heavily! The Spitfire nosed over and P/O Mause suffered severe injuries, with skull fracture which he received 29 stitches, and he survived! The Spitfire however did not. It was initially recovered to AST Ltd to be repaired, but after inspection, was re-categorised to Cat’E and written off on the 20th of May 1942.
His service with the RAF, included two months as an instructor with 53 OUT. When he again, on the 23rd March 1942 while flying Spitfire X4337 the engine cut and a forced landing was made in a field with u/c up and went through a hedge and overturned at Llandow again, Mause was unhurt, and spent three months as a test pilot before going into combat work, serving with 56sqn flying the Hawker Typhoon for four months. His last flight with 56Sqn was on the 30th of July 1942. He then re-joined his fellow countrymen, flying with the USAAF during the invasion of Africa (Operation Torch) after being transferred from the RAF.
His injuries eventually caught up with him and after two other accidents he was invalided out and returned home to America.
Crew:
P/O John D Mause (US.pilot) RAF Injured.
Wreckage: Removed.
Additional information:
Jack Mann was born in Northampton on 11th June 1914 and educated at St. James School there. He went to work as an engineer at Phillips and Powis at Reading. He joined the RAFVR on 6th April 1938 as an airman u/t Pilot and did his weekend flying at 8 E&RFTS Woodley.
Called up on 1st September 1939, he was not posted to 3 ITW at Hastings until December. Mann went to 9 FTS Hullavington. He went to 5 OTU Aston Down on 7th July, converted to Spitfires and joined 64 Squadron at Kenley on 27th July.
#He made his first operational sortie on the 29th. On the 5th of August he destroyed a Me109, on the 8th he probably destroyed two Me109's, on the 11th probably destroyed a Me109 and damaged another and on the 12th, he probably destroyed another Me109. Mann was slightly wounded in action on the 16th, and he made a forced landing at Hawkinge, in Spitfire L1038.
He was slightly injured on the ground when Kenley was bombed on the 18th. He re-joined the squadron on the 25th. Mann was posted to 92 Squadron at Biggin Hill on 12th September and on the 14th of August he damaged a Me109 but was himself wounded in the action. He was made non-effective sick and still was in November 1940. Serving with 91 Squadron on 31st March 1941, Mann shot down a Me109 west of Cap Gris Nez. In the engagement, his Spitfire, P7783, was severely damaged and he was badly burned when he made a crash-landing at Mongeham, Kent.
He underwent plastic surgery at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, becoming a Guinea Pig. He was awarded the DFM. Fit again, Mann was posted to No. 1 ADF at Hendon. Whilst still with the unit he was commissioned from Warrant Officer in July 1942. Mann later flew with Ferry Command on the North Atlantic run.
He married Dilys Pritchard, known as 'Sunnie' at Chiswick Registry Office in 1943, at the time she was an ambulance driver. He was released from the RAF in 1946 as a Flight Lieutenant. He flew with commercial airlines and eventually became their Chief Pilot, Middle East Airlines, Beirut. He took up residence there and when he stopped flying Mann became manager of the Duke of Wellington Bar in the Marble Towers Hotel, Beirut. He later managed the Mr Pickwick Bar in the city.
On 12th May 1989 Mann was kidnapped as he drove to a bank in Syrian-controlled West Beirut. His captors, ASC (Armed Struggle Cells), said he was being held hostage against the release of Arabs jailed in Britain. He was being held at the same time as John McCarthy and Terry Waite. Aged 74 when taken hostage, Mann was held in solitary confinement throughout the entire period of his incarceration and frequently chained. 'They treated me as if I were some sort of goat' he later recalled 'and hit me on the head if I was in any way recalcitrant, which happened several times a day'. His guards would hold a gun to his head then pull the trigger to reveal it was unloaded. His glasses were lost, which denied him the solace of reading and he resorted to endless games of patience.
Although he was given regular meals his dislike of Arab food remained, and he lost three stone. After 865 days in captivity Mann was finally released in Damascus on 24th September 1991, in response to Israel's liberation of 51 Shi'ite Moslem prisoners and the handing over of the bodies of nine Lebanese guerrillas two weeks earlier. After being flown to Britain for medical treatment and rest, Mann and his wife later went to live in Cyprus.
He was made a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List of 1991. Sadly, Jack died on 11th November 1995.
Sources:
http://www.spitfires.ukf.net/p002.htm
http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?11767-P-O-J.-D.-Mause-an-American-with-No.-56-Sqn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Stormy_Down
https://newspaperarchive.com/sitemap/freepdfpreview.aspx?img=10508235/
http://ciapoldiescorner.blogspot.com/2009/12/events-for-29th-december.html
https://newspaperarchive.com/sitemap/freepdfpreview.aspx?img=10629258/
discovery.nationalarchives.gov
www.rafweb.org
www.bbm.org.uk
aircrewremembered.com
www.independent.co.uk
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 14-Aug-2011 20:34 | angels one five | Added |
| 28-Dec-2011 06:50 | Nepa | Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Operator, Departure airport, Narrative] |
| 09-Jan-2012 01:52 | angels one five | Updated [Cn, Operator, Departure airport] |
| 09-Jan-2012 06:36 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Location] |
| 23-Jan-2012 03:01 | angels one five | Updated [Aircraft type, Narrative] |
| 21-Nov-2012 13:33 | angels one five | Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Narrative] |
| 24-Apr-2013 22:14 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location, Phase, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 19-Jul-2013 20:34 | JINX | Updated [Operator, Location, Destination airport, Narrative] |
| 20-Oct-2013 06:04 | angels one five | Updated [Operator] |
| 23-Dec-2013 07:50 | angels one five | Updated [Departure airport, Narrative] |
| 20-Jun-2015 09:12 | Angel dick one | Updated [Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport] |
| 08-Feb-2021 23:06 | angels one five | Updated [Time, Location, Narrative] |
| 19-Nov-2021 12:17 | Davies 62 | Updated [Aircraft type, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 05-Jul-2023 18:04 | Nepa | Updated [[Aircraft type, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]] |
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