ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 269639
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| Date: | Sunday 14 December 1941 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Consolidated PBY-4 Catalina Mk I |
| Owner/operator: | 209 Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | AH530 |
| MSN: | WQ-T |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 9 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Milford Haven. Off Popton Point. -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Pembroke Dock. |
Details:
This aircraft was within one of the first batches sent to the RAF from the US. It was taking off from Pembroke Dock at 04:48hrs on a routine patrol of the Bay of Biscay, as it raised on to ‘the step’ she hit a hidden partially submerged obstacle which put the aircraft into a wing down attitude and crashed into the Haven off Popton Point and sinking, killing all but two of the crew of nine. Three days later, on the 17th of December a memorial at the base chapel was held in memory to the crew. At this time all were listed as missing with the two survivors in the hospital recovering. Over the following days three of the crew were found washed up, the flight engineer was found close by and the pilot as far as Devon, they were buried locally to their families.
Crew:
F/Lt Edward Arthur Jewiss DFC 39yo 44261 RAF.Pilot. Killed. 1.
P/O Frank Richard Wellings 28yo J/4890 RCAF. 2nd Pilot. Missing. 2.
Sgt Arthur Berry RAuxAF. F/Engr. Killed. 3.
Sgt Wisden Warwick Stenning 22yo 917925 RAFVR. Missing. 4.
F/Sgt Hubert Harding Penrose 521238 RAF. Missing. 5.
Sgt Harry Greenwood 21yo 1002367 RAFVR. Missing. 6.
Sgt Francis Foster DeSmit 777609 RAFVR. Missing. 7.
Sgt Stanley Napier 21yo 626781 RAF. 8.
F/Sgt John Percival Taylor R/61072 RCAF. Killed. 9.
Sgt John Nevil Tew 20yo 981687 RAFVR. Injured. (a).
Sgt P J Rudge. Injured. (No further details).
Buried:
1 Latton (St John the Baptist) Churchyard. N.E. Corner.
2 Runnymede Memorial. Panel 60.
3 Maidstone Cemetery. Plot C.C.1 Grave 104.
4 Runnymede Memorial. Panel 52.
5 Runnymede Memorial. Panel 37.
6 Runnymede Memorial. Panel 44.
7 Runnymede Memorial. Panel 42.
8 Runnymede Memorial. Panel 49.
9 Birstwith (St James) Churchyard. Grave 390.
a Sgt Tew was listed as missing after Catalina AH545 of 119 squadron didn’t return on the 14th of July 1942. He is listed at Runnymede Memorial. Panel 76.
Wreckage:
Under water, unknown.
Additional information:
Flying Officer Jewiss was awarded his DFC following the action on U-452 on the 19th of August 1941. He was piloting Catalina AH553 ‘WQ-J’, patrolling in the North Atlantic south of Iceland when the W/Op reported that an anti-submarine trawler, HMS Vascama had just signalled, a U-Boat has been sighted, which they had attacked with depth charges.
AH553 and its crew then proceeded to patrol an area a quarter of a mile away. The Boat was sighted on the surface! F/Lt Jewiss went into attack!
“We dropped four depth charges as the U-Boat crash dived, our charges straddled the boat which blew back up to the surface, and then sunk stern first!”
This was U-452, a type VIIIc, captained by Kapitanleutnant Jurgen March, and became the first U-Boat to be sunk by a Catalina PBY in the war with all hands lost. Crew of the U-Boat was 42.
August the 27th.
F/Lt was piloting Catalina AH553 ‘WQ-J’ again, this time patrolling the Norwegian Sea when she was called to assist in the hunt for a U-Boat!
Lockheed Hudsons of 269 Squadron were the first to drop depth charges. They scored a direct ‘straddle’ which almost rolled the boat over! This U-Boat was the U-570.
U-570 was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Graph, spending the rest of its active career hunting U-boats. She was decommissioned from active service in February 1944. She saw some use as a target, to determine the damage caused by depth charges in full-scale trials. After surviving these experiments, she was to be towed by the Royal Navy rescue tug HMRT Growler from Chatham to the Clyde for scrapping. But on 19 March 1944 her towrope broke in gale-force winds and driven by wind and waves, she ran aground near Coul Point, on the west coast of Islay, Scotland. Growler was unable to refloat the submarine, and she was abandoned.
Graph was partially salvaged and scrapped in 1947. Some remains of HMS Graph remained visible at low tide on the rocks near Sligo beach in 1970, with the pressure casing of the conning tower and periscope tube clearly visible today, the remains of the wreck lie in about 20 ft of water.
To date, the U-570 is the only submarine known to have surrendered to a plane!
Sources:
www.airhistory.com
rafcommands.com
www.rafweb.org
nationalarchives.gov.uk
aircrewremmembered.com
www.warhistoryonline.com
https://theaviationgeekclub.com
https://www.uboat.net
Images:
.jpg)
www.uboat.net
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-Nov-2021 18:07 | Davies 62 | Added |
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