ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 230165
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| Date: | Tuesday 18 September 1945 |
| Time: | 15:55 LT |
| Type: |  Consolidated Liberator C.VIII |
| Owner/operator: | 466 Sqn RAAF |
| Registration: | KN736 |
| MSN: | 6893 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 7 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Potton Wood, Potton, near Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire |
Consolidated B-24J-145 Liberator C.Mk.8, KN736, 466 (Australian) Squdron, RAAF: Written off (destroyed) when crashed at Potton Wood, Potton, near Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire. Flew into the ground while flying on only two engines. Four of the seven crew were killed, the other three were severely injured.
466 Squadron were based at RAF Bassingbourn in Cambridgeshire, and were learning how to operate the American B-24 as a replacement for their Halifax.On September 18th, 1945, a training flight was planned in order to introduce and test the reactions of a mixed British and Australian crew to these emergency engine failure conditions. A three-engined takeoff and landing would be followed by another flight when two engines would be stopped.
It was around 15:00 in the afternoon after a late lunch which had followed the usual takeoffs, circuits and landings as initial familiarization, when the seven crew and a Scottish Terrier puppy climbed back into the refuelled KN736, a brand-new Liberator C.Mk.8 (Flight Lieutenant Spiller's Flight Log Book suggests it was a mark 7A) with (up to that fateful morning) delivery flight hours only, and taxied around to the end of one of Bassingbourn's huge runways, the most famous American air base in Eastern England, home of the B-17 Flying Fortresses of the 91st Bomb Group.
The Captain, Flt. Lt. Pat McNulty DFC, RAAF, a veteran of many operational flights in the similar Halifax, was at the controls in the left-hand seat. Under the instruction of Flight Lieutenant John Spiller DFC, RAF, of 59 Squadron from Waterbeach, seconded to 466 Squadron for this training, the flight engineers shut down the starboard outer engine as the wheels left the concrete; the remaining three engines powered the Liberator in her climb in a controlled and safe manner over the fields and lanes, the villages and ponds of East Anglia. Over to the left could be seen another airfield with it's own history: Steeple Morden, home of the American 355th Fighter Group and their P51-D Mustangs.
Pleased with the success of the crew and plane, Flt. Lt. Spiller decided that the other part of the training, handling the plane with just two operational engines, might as well be performed before ending the flight for the day with the three-engined landing. It was a momentous decision. It is possible Spiller felt under pressure of time. Liberators would be required to bring home the troops from the far east, the war with Japan having ended only the previous month. Squadron training had been delayed by bad weather that September, and on this day, the schedule was also running late, so he probably felt it would save time to skip the landing between the two scenarios.
At first, the shut down and feathering of the second, starboard inner engine, went perfectly well, though the effort to maintain straight flight required full left rudder. The aeroplane was losing altitude gradually, and the exercise had started at only 1,200 feet. Any attempt to make a turn to the right would have immediately spun the Liberator into the ground, and the crew discovered there to be insufficient control input remaining to achieve a left turn. Unable to maintain altitude at such a low level, the pilot was flying the plane in an exceptionally risky condition at the limit of control, and as KN736 headed north-west, the land was gently rising towards the Greensand Ridge at Potton; before very long it became essential to restart at least one of the engines.
This was a critical time, as the propeller blades had first to be set to a fine pitch and allowed to 'windmill' to generate the momentum that a starter motor on the ground would have provided; this naturally added drag and slowed the plane significantly at a time when it needed all the speed it could get. The crew performed the tasks required but the engine stubbornly refused to restart, and the plane began to more rapidly lose speed and altitude. Unable to turn and with the ground rising to meet them, the crew were suddenly in deeply serious trouble, with very little time left to sort it out. They hurriedly un-feathered the inner starboard engine, again slowing the plane yet more, but all attempts to restart this engine also failed, and fairly quickly, the starboard wing stalled, KN736 went into a dive and crashed into the southern boundary of Potton Wood. The plane broke into sections and burst into flames.
Crew of B-24 KN736:
Captain, Flight Lieutenant Patrick Joseph McNulty, DFC, RAAF 426286, aged 22 - killed on active service 18 September 1945
Pilot Instructor: Flight Lieutenant John Edward James Spiller, DFC, RAF 147197, aged 28 - killed on active service 18 September 1945
Co-pilot, Flying Officer Francis George "Frank" Doak, RAAF 419770 - survived but badly injured
Flying Officer Noel P. Gilmour, RAAF 428664 - survived but badly injured
Flight Engineer: Flight Sergeant. Roy Delbert Turner, RAF 1863014. aged 20 - killed on active service 18 September 1945.
Instructing Flight Engineer: Flight Sergeant Raymond Victor Carling, RAF 1803034 - survived but badly injured
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner: Warrant Officer James Raymond "Jim" Potter, RAAF 434008 - killed on active service 18 September 1945
The two Australian crew who died are interred in the Commonwealth War Graves section of Cambridge Cemetery. Flight Lieutenant Spiller is interred at the Edmonton Cemetery near Enfield. Flight Sergeant Turner was buried at St, Margaret's Churchyard in Lowestoft, Suffolk.
The incident is commemorated on a memorial in Cockayne Hatley's St John the Baptist churchyard, a slab of slate supposedly shaped into the wing tip of a B24, or the blade of a propeller, was erected and dedicated in August, 1998. In an amusing postscript, it should be mentioned that the "unauthorised passenger" known as "Bitsa", a dog who was the pet of Flying Officer Noel Gilmour, survived the incident apparently uninjured!
B-24J Liberator C.Mk.8 KN736 was ex-USAAF 44-50192, but was diverted to the RAF/RAAF in August 1945 before delivery.
Sources:
1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.9. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. http://www.grahamhague.com/pottonliberator.shtml
3. https://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1450655
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potton_Wood
5. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2651339/mcnulty,-patrick-joseph/
6. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2430506/spiller,-edward-john-james/
7. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2651463/potter,-james-raymond/
8. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2720990/turner,-delbert-roy/
9. http://aircrewremembered.com/mcnulty-patrick-joseph.html
10. http://www.planetrace.co.uk/1940-1949_28.html
11. http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1944_4.html
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 23-Oct-2019 19:16 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 23-Oct-2019 19:17 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Total occupants] |
| 23-Oct-2019 19:24 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Cn, Narrative] |
| 23-Oct-2019 19:27 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
| 25-Oct-2019 00:35 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 27-Oct-2019 22:09 | Anon. | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
| 30-Nov-2020 10:33 | KeithWood | Updated [Narrative] |
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