Date:	Thursday 12 December 1940
Time:	day
Type:	De Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moth
Owner/operator:	10 EFTS RAF
Registration:	T5422
MSN:	83165
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Bristol Channel, 1 mile South of Brean Down, Somerset -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset
Destination airport:	RAF Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset

Narrative:
De Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moth MSN 83165 (Gipsy Major #83045); Taken on charge as T5422 at 38 MU RAF Llandow, Glamorgan 8.5.40. To 10 EFTS RAF Weston-super-Mare, Somerset 24.11.40.

Written off (destroyed) when flew into the waters of the Bristol Channel while low flying, 1 mile South of Brean Down, Somerset 12.12.40; Both crew killed. According to the book "Weston-Super-Mare and the Aeroplane By Roger Dudley, Ted Johnson"

"12 December [1940]: While low flying a mile south of Brean Down, Somerset, DH Tiger Moth T5422 of 10 EFTS was seen to make several rapid descents, as through the pilot was practicing dive-bombing. During these procedures, the undercarriage touched the waters twice, the machine crashed into the sea, and the crew was drowned"

Crew of Tiger Moth T5422:
Sergeant Kenneth Aldred Baldry (741301) (RAFVR) (Instructor Pilot, aged 23)(Australian National)
Leading Aircraftman Roderick George Lyall MacKenzie (1104259) (RAFVR) (Trainee Pilot, Aged 17)

Baldry is the grandson of a Major General in the Australian Army and the local schools in his hometown compete for the Baldry Shield in an annual athletics competion. The shield was donated in memory of a member of the Baldry family who died in the war. As Kenneth Baldry is the only Baldry listed as KIA on the town war memorial I am guessing the shield is in his memory. According to a contemporary local newspaper report from Sydney, Australia (see link #11)

"SERGEANT-PILOT KILLED
SYDNEY Thursday 27/12/1940
Sergeant-Pilot Kenneth Mackay Baldry RAF, instructor son of Mr and Mrs A N Baldry of Wallandoon Station, NSW, has been killed in an air crash in England. Sergeant-Pilot Baldry was a civil pilot in England for three and a half years before the war. He was on the RAF volunteer reserve and at the time of his death, and had 1,275 solo flying hours to his credit. His grandfather, Major-General Kenneth Mackay, who was in the Legislative Council for 30 years, commanded the 6th Imperial Bushmen in the Boer War"

The same pilot - Kenneth Aldred Mackay Baldry (born 2.7.1917 in Wallendbeen, NSW, Australia) had survived an earlier crash when flying Miles Magister L6906 over Southampton Water, near RAF Hamble, Hampshire on 16.3.38 (see separate entry)

Not repaired: Struck off charge 23.12.40 as FACE (Flying Accident Cat.E).

Note that the official file into the incident at the National Archives at Kew (File AIR81/15453 - see link #3) listed the Tiger Moth as "K5422" in error. K5422 was a serial allocated to a Hawker Hind

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft T1000-V9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
2. Weston-Super-Mare and the Aeroplane By Roger Dudley, Ted Johnson
3. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/4543: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C16688641
4. CWGC: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2691934/kenneth-aldred-baldry/
5. CWGC: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2967826/roderick-george-lyall-mackenzie/
6. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/production-lists/DH82.pdf
7. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/p831.html
8. https://aviationmuseumwa.org.au/afcraaf-roll/baldry-kenneth-aldred-741301/
9. http://www.militarian.com/threads/what-squadrons-were-these-raf-aussies-in-when-they-died.2477/
10. http://www.rafweb.org/Members%20Pages/Casualties/1940s/1940/Casualties_1940_12_2.htm
11. http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/in-memoriam-those-air-force-pilots-crews-who-died-on-this-day-in-ww2.18267/page-4
12. WRECKS OF BRIDGWATER BAY: A REVIEW OF THEIR STATUS, HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE by Justin K. Dixa, Fraser Sturtb, Michael J. Grantaand Sean Steadman :https://moam.info/wrecks-of-bridgwater-bay-a-review-of-their-status-_5a01886f1723dd81907813d1.html (P.101)
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgwater_Bay
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brean_Down

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
19-Feb-2022 21:20	Dr. John Smith	Added
20-Feb-2022 11:14	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]