ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 229581
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| Date: | Tuesday 9 February 1943 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: |  Supermarine Spitfire Mk IIa |
| Owner/operator: | 53 OTU RAF |
| Registration: | P8447 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Gowley Farm, Llancarfan, Wales -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | RAF Llandow |
| Return |
This Spitfire was destroyed when it struck a tree and crashed. The pilot was killed.
Pilot: Sgt Ralph Roschman Hill RCAF (20) is buried at Llandwitt Major Cemetery.
R.I.P.
Details:
This Spitfire as you will see, is an unusual specimen with four squadrons but with no active flying against the enemy and until arriving with her final unit, she had limited flying hours.
P8447 was built at the newly completed Castle Bromwich works and allocated to the RAF at No.37MU at RAF Burtonwood, Chester on the 18th of June 1941. A stay of three months before her first posting to a squadron occurred on the 15th of September to 308 squadron who were based at RAF Northolt. Here she stayed on the ground, un-used until called over to 616 squadron also at Northolt, on squadron strength on the 6th of October, she went with them to RAF Kirkton-in-Linsey. This short hop was to be the only flying with the squadron yet again!
Her next stop was with No.133 squadron. It was reformed at RAF Coltishall in July 1941 as the third of the Eagle Squadrons, equipped with the Hurricane IIB. It transferred to RAF Duxford in August, and by October was at RAF Eglinton, County Londonderry in Northern Ireland, where it was equipped with Spitfire IIa’s. One of which was P8447, she arrived on the 18th of November. Once again her stay was short and was ferried out to another squadron, this time No.134 at RAF Catterick arriving on the 31st of December just after the squadron had returned from their stint in Russia training Russian pilots on the Hurricane.
Upon their return, the squadron was to reform and rearm for war duties, being issued Hurricane IIB’s. However, orders came through that the squadron was to be issued with the new Spitfire Vb’s. Until then they had to make do with the Spitfire II’s already at the station. Along with the bad weather and the usual final tasks involved with a squadron move, flying didn’t take place with the Spitfires until the following year. On the 2nd of January the ground staff were finally able to look at their Spitfires and they were not impressed!
Squadron records.
“2 January 1942. The Spitfire IIA’s we’ve taken over are very old and not in a very good condition, we’ve even found rust on the guns, even in the muzzles. Probably due to the aerodrome conditions and the aircraft not being used for a good while!”
P8447 still had low hours on the airframe but because of limited use she was very stiff. A flying accident on the 6th of January, which saw Spitfire P8393 plumet into the sea taking her pilot with her, stiff or seized controls is thought to be the reason of this unfortunate accident. P8447 was one of the aircraft involved with the search of the area, but to no avail. The Spitfire II’s were tasked to training and familiarisation to ready the pilots for their new 5’s. The next time she flew with the squadron was on a ground exercise where the squadron were tasked to search and destroy the ground troops. At this time the squadron was flying a wide variety of aircraft, ranging from Lysanders to the new Spitfire V’s. This exercise was one such example.
The aircraft used looked like this:
Spitfire IIa.
P9916, P7533, P8249 & P8447.
Spitfire Vb.
BL547.
Hurricane IIB.
Z3745.
Magister.
R1822.
Lysander III. On towing duties for the remainder of the squadron not involved.
More and more Spitfire V’s arrived and once again P8447 was side-lined with her final flight taking place on the 20th of January. Once again, she sat on the ground unused and unloved.
She was ferried out, arriving with 53 OTU on the 7th of June 1942. Here she was anything but left unused, flying on numerous flights without incident until she took off under the control of Sgt Hill, a Canadian on the 9th of February on aerobatics ( in ? ) and outside cloud. He was heard to fly aerobatics in cloud by locals on the ground when suddenly P8447 was seen coming out of cloud in a steep dive, he pulled out at extremely low level and just as it looked like he had cheated death, P8447 struck a lone mature Oak tree, tearing off a wing and breaking up along the ground and finally crashing into a field over the next hedge, killing the 20 year old Canadian instantly.
The official findings on the following enquiry found Sgt R. R. Hill had performed unauthorised low aerobatics and struck a large tree at Gowley Farm, near Llancarfan.
Pilot:
Sgt Ralph Roschman Hill 20yo R/137173 RCAF. Killed.
Son of John Edward and Yadah Hill of Waterloo, Ontario Canada.
Buried:
Llantwit Major Cemetery. Section C. Grave 40.
Additional Information:
Royal Air Force Burtonwood was located in Burtonwood, 2 miles Northwest of Warrington in Cheshire. The base was opened in 1940 and in 1942 it was transferred to the USAAF. It become a servicing centre for the US 8th, 9th 12th & 15th Air Forces aircraft. Burtonwood was also known as Base Air Depot 1 (BAD 1), although an RAF presence continued in the form of the RAF Police who maintained security on the site until the mid-1960s. Burtonwood was the largest airfield in Europe during the war with the most USAAF personnel and aircraft maintenance facilities. The roar of the engines in the test beds could be heard for miles around, especially at night. By the end of the war 18,000 servicemen were stationed at Burtonwood. During their leave periods, American servicemen from Burtonwood virtually took over the centre of nearby Warrington.
134 squadron reformed from a nucleus provided by 17Sqn’ in July 1941 as a fighter unit equipped with Hawker Hurricanes stationed at RAF Leconfield. It was then based near Murmansk to train Russian pilots until the Hurricanes were handed over to the Russian Navy. Back in the UK the squadron was re-assembled at Catterick, December 1941, moved to Northern Ireland for two months and returned to RAF Baginton (in Warwickshire) to prepare to move overseas once again. It then operated in Egypt until November 1943 when it moved to India & Burma. The squadron converted to the P-47 Thunderbolt and disbanded by being renumbered 131 squadron.
Sources:
Spitfire production list.
CWGC
www.americanairmuseum,com
www.rafcommands.com
www.findagrave.com/memorial/139269977/ralph-roschman-hill
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 02-Oct-2019 02:37 | angels one five | Added |
| 02-Nov-2019 08:42 | Anon. | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
| 02-Apr-2024 06:47 | angels one five | Updated [Phase, Destination airport, Narrative] |
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