ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 275457
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| Date: | Tuesday 22 September 1942 |
| Time: | 17:55 |
| Type: |  Douglas Boston Mk III |
| Owner/operator: | 534 Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | AL470 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Rex Cinema, Shottermill, near Haslemere, Surrey -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Tangmere, Chichester, West Sussex |
| RAF Ford, Arundel, West Sussex |
A Boston III Turbinlite of No.534 Squadron came to a nasty end whilst exercising en route from Tangmere to Ford on 22nd September 1942.(534 Squadron was formed 2 September 1942 from the redesignation of 1455 Flight). The pilot, Flying Officer W. Winter, had been briefed by his Flight Commander to carry out a night flying test on the modified Boston AL470, in the course of which he was to land a passenger at Ford, 7 miles to the east of Tangmere. On board was the Observer, Flight Sergeant Cleall, and the passenger on this trip was Pilot Officer J. Lindley.
The Boston, loaded to 21,017 lb, took off from Tangmere at 17.40 and shortly afterwards flew alongside another Boston flown by the Flight Commander. Whilst over the aerodrome, F/O Winter asked his Flight Commander if he would join him in an Air Interception exercise - with the reply being in the negative, Winter then broke away in AL470 and headed North. Nothing more was seen of the Boston until, at 17.55, it was seen to emerge from low cloud in a dive over Shottermill (Surrey), and as it did so the aircraft broke up. All three of the occupants died in the crash.
Flying Officer Winter had learned to fly at No.4 EFTS in 1941 and had been assessed as "Above Average". On posting to No.15 SFTS in May of that year he was again assessed as "Above Average" on twin-engined aircraft. Awarded his Wings in July 1941, he was involved in a night flying accident in September and his logbook endorsed with the words "gross carelessness". Posted to RAF Tangmere in November 1941, at the time of the crash of AL470 he had amassed 242 hours daylight flying, of which 157 were on Havocs and Bostons. His night flying experience on these types was 53 hours.
Inspection at the scene of the crash showed the wreckage distributed on a 370 yard line north to south, with the starboard engine at the southern end. This had fallen vertically through the roof of the Rex Cinema in Shottermill. The main wreckage had fallen 95 yards north of the cinema, on the main Hindhead to Haslemere road. Partly destroyed by fire, the local police had removed it from the road before the investigators arrived which, of course, hampered the examination of the various components, mainly the fuselage and port mainplane. The starboard one was 110 yards north of the road, and was found to have failed in upload at the fuselage attachment. Various other parts, such as the starboard mainplane, had failed in a similar fashion. Most importantly it was discovered that one of the bearers for the starboard engine was defective.
The sequence of events as postulated from the evidence was that the aircraft was being looped, and the starboard engine had detached while the Boston was under high stress recovering from the dive out of the loop. This induced a violent and quick nose-up change in attitude, the upload causing the starboard mainplane to break away, followed by disintegration of the whole aircraft.
All three crewmen were fatally injured in the crash.
F/Sgt Wilfred Ernest CLEALL (1187424) Observer
P/O John Horace LINDLEY (103848) Air Gunner
F/O William Michael Esdaile WINTER (102119) Pilot
Additional: There was a memorial service for the three crew on 22 September 2012, the 70th anniversary of the incident. According to a report on ITV Meridian (see link #3 and video):
"Memorial for Bomber crash victims
Seventy years ago today a Boston bomber aircraft exploded in the air over the Surrey village of Haslemere. Three crew members were killed. Today a memorial service was held at the crash site to remember those who died. Juliette Fletcher spoke to eyewitnesses Don Stacey and Peter Lane who saw what happened when the plane came down."
The official Casualty Pack (Air 81/18092 - held at the UK National Archives) gives very few of the details above. It does state that in addition to those killed, a further nine civilians and a soldier were injured when wreckage fell on the cinema. The extent of these injuries of any further details of those who were injured is not given.
Pilot Officer John Horace Lindley was married and is listed in the file as being on the strength of HQ RAF Tangmere and not No. 534 Squadron.
In a letter from the RAF Casualty Branch to the Imperial War Graves Commission (dated 13 August 1947 in response to a request from the IWGC dated 8 July, 1947), his trade is at the time of his death is shown as Administrative and Special Duties (Flying Control). (Air 81/18092 - enclosures19A and 19C).
The document also includes an initial accident report (RAF Form 765 (C) - Enclosure 7A) which has a comment from the Station Commander at RAF Tangmere written on 27 September 1942, which states that the ‘aircraft emerged from cloud at 1000 - 1500 feet above ground level in a 30-degree dive.’
It goes on ‘[i]t then did a roll and a loop, almost certainly unintentionally, and started to break up at the bottom of the loop.’
The two copies of the RAF Form 551(Officer or Airman - Report on Accidental or Self-Inflicted Injuries or Immediate Death Therefrom) - Enclosure 14A (Pilot Officer Winter) and Enclosure 17A (Flight Sergeant Cleall) both state that their injuries ‘were sustained in the performance of their air force duties) and that in both cases the injuries sustained were not due to ‘negligence or misconduct or any blameworthy cause’ within each man’s control.
Sources:
1. Operations Record Book for No. 534 Squadron (File AIR 27/2004 at the National Archives) entry for 22 Sep 42
2. http://www.rafcommands.com/database entry for AL470
3. https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/story/2012-09-22/memorial-for-bomber-crash-victims/
4. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2762211/wilfred-ernest-cleall/
5. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2719369/john-horace-lindley/
6. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2723222/william-michael-esdaile-winter/
7. https://www.bordonherald.com/news/peeps-into-the-past-the-night-three-young-men-died-in-shottermill-air-crash-566202
8. https://ms-my.facebook.com/PeepsIntoPast/?hc_ref=ART6C6XK0QT2WGD0aDz0wgIpomhw6e76fg5z1NP1jVQH0oLxLU9XZseL1AzQ9tB_R4w&fref=nf
9. http://www.tiveyfamilytree.com/Shottermill.pdf
10. https://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=1550.0
Images:
534 Sqn ORB entry for 22 Sep 42
Media:
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 13-Feb-2022 08:01 | grapeshot418 | Added |
| 14-Feb-2022 20:01 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Narrative, Operator] |
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