ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 282419
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| Date: | Tuesday 15 September 1942 |
| Time: | nk |
| Type: | Airspeed AS-30 Queen Wasp. |
| Owner/operator: | Pilotless Aeroplane Unit 'PAU'. |
| Registration: | P5445 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Location: | Off Caldy Island Wales -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Test |
| Departure airport: | RAF Manorbier. |
| Return. |
Mission: Air Test.
Details:
The Airspeed AS.30 Queen Wasp was a British pilotless target aircraft built by Airspeed Ltd at Portsmouth during the Second World War. Although intended for both Royal Air Force and Royal Navy use, the aircraft never went into series production. The Queen Wasp was built to meet an Air Ministry Specification Q.32/35 for a pilotless target aircraft to replace the De Haviland Queen Bee. Two prototypes were ordered in May 1936, one to have a wheeled landing gear for use by the Royal Air Force and the other as a floatplane for Royal Navy use for air-firing practice at sea. A total of 65 aircraft were ordered, contingent on the success of the flight test programme. In flight tests, the aircraft was found to be underpowered and water handling difficulties necessitated a redesign of the floats by their manufacturer, Short Bros. Although the production run of 10 aircraft was begun (P5441–P5450), only three more aircraft were completed and delivered to the Royal Air Force. P5445 was the last completed aircraft and ended up at the RAF testing base at Manorbier.
It was common practice to fly the ‘pilotless’ aircraft manually before the first pilotless test, the job at RAF Manorbier fell to F/O Howdle, a WW1 2nd Lt Royal Flying Corps veteran who was too old for frontline duties, but young enough for test flying or as with other WW1 flyers becoming Ferry pilots. James’s task was to evaluate the handling of the new aircraft before committing it to ‘Target duties’, which it was to take place later that week. Unfortunately for reasons unknown to this day, P5445 simple ploughed into the sea off the Island of Caldy, James was not found and is listed as missing. The location of the wreck of the Queen Wasp is also not known, as is the same for many of the aircraft to go into the Severn Channel.
Crew:
F/O James Thomas Howdle 46yo 84525 RAFVR. Test Pilot. Missing.
Son of James Howdle and of Amy Howdle (nee Wilton); husband of Elsie Susan Howdle (nee Johnson), of Handsworth, Birmingham.
Buried:
Runneymede Memorial. Panel 167.
Wreckage:
At sea. Not known.
Memorials:
CWGC memorial web page.
Additional Information:
The landplane first flew on 11 June 1937, and the floatplane on 19 October 1937. The floatplane was successfully catapulted from HMS Pegasus in November 1937. HMS Pegasus was the world's first purpose-built seaplane carrier, commissioned as HMS Ark Royal in 1917, but renamed in 1934.
AS.30 Queen Wasp
K8887 f/f 11-06-37
K8888
P5441 f/f 29-03-40
P5442 f/f 18-05-40
P5443 to P5445 completed
P5446 to P5450 partially completed before project cancelled
P5451 to P5455-P5496 to P5525-P5546 to P5565 cancelled
James was born during 1896 at beginning of the First World War he joined the Royal Cycle Corps and gained the rank of Corporal ser’ No. 1785. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant and joined the Royal Flying Corps on the 22nd of July 1915. He received his discharge on the 8th of March 1918.
James and Elsie had a son who too served with the RAF, with No.10 squadron.
What follows is an excerpt from the Birmingham Mail;
“It was a story of incredible daring carried in the Birmingham Evening Mail of March 25, 1944, under the headline: “Gunner Guided Pilot. How Birmingham Man Saved Aircraft.”
As a headline, it hardly did justice to the heroics of Brummie rear-gunner Peter Howdle. In fact, his name didn’t appear in the initial story.
Howdle thwarted SIX attacks on his Halifax bomber by a Junkers 88 – despite being out of ammo and despite being trapped in the badly damaged turret.
The “tail-gun Charlie” earned the Distinguished Flying Medal for his actions during a raid on Frankfurt’s munitions, engineering and chemical factories.
Thankfully, the Birmingham Gazette went into more detail with its report.
Pilot Warrant Officer CW Aston told the newspaper: “On his second attack, the enemy set fire to our starboard flap. The fighter realised that we were not returning his fire, and made the most of his chance, swooping in each time from about 800 yards astern and pumping bullets into us until he was only 50 yards away.
“Sergeant Howdle, the rear gunner, was largely responsible for saving us. His turret had been damaged and he was stuck in one position, but he kept up a running commentary on the fighter’s manoeuvres, and that enabled me to take evasive action.
“We were corkscrewing and diving all over the sky. Within five minutes the fire was blown out.
“After his sixth attack we saw the last of the Ju88. His ammunition must have been exhausted. He kept on our tail for 15 minutes and we were down to 14,000 feet.
“The dead-reckoning compass was useless, and the hydraulic system damaged. There was a huge hole in the starboard wing, another near the engine store and several in the starboard fin. After that, we bombed the target and then returned home.”
Aston, aged 26, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He and his crew were the Midlands equivalent of Memphis Belle.
They refused to be split up and Howdle even shunned promotion to stay with his team.
Now, Richard Pursehouse and Lee Dent, of military history group The Chase Project – aided by Wolverhampton Western Front Association branch member Dave Dunham – have delved deeper into the Howdle story.
Peter Noel Howdle’s ancestors actually lived on a farm in Howdle’s Lane, Brownhills. His grandfather James Howdle came from Willenhall and his grandmother Amy from Wolverhampton.
His mother Elsie Susan (nee Johnson) married James Thomas Howdle in November 1922, at Kings Norton in Birmingham.
James served in the RAF during the Great War, and in the 1920s the Howdles moved to France.
James had several jobs, including one as a sales representative for Dunhill cigarettes, an apparently ideal cover story for cross-border “intelligence gathering” work.
Peter was born near Versailles in December 1923, and the family returned to Britain in 1939.
He attended Birmingham Art School and once sent his work to Walt Disney Studios, which advised him to work hard at improving his style.
His sister Anne is now 90 years old and lives in a cottage in Suffolk.
Arriving back in Britain, the family lived in Queen’s Head Road, Handsworth. James joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve when the Second World War broke out and, despite being 46, was accepted. He was initially stationed in Scotland.
Peter was evacuated to Monmouth where he joined the school’s Home Guard platoon.
The distance to his father’s RAF base in Scotland was not too great an obstacle as he cycled up to see him on several occasions, sleeping in telephone boxes on the way.
Flying Officer James Thomas Howdle was reported lost over the Channel on September 15, 1942. It is believed he may have been in a reconnaissance Spitfire.
Despite wanting to join the Merchant Marines, Peter ended up in the Royal Air Force and joined Number 10 Squadron. He mostly flew in Handley Page Halifax BII bombers. His squadron was part of No.4 Bomber Group, flying out of RAF Melbourne in Yorkshire, which lost 109 aircraft in wartime operations.
The crew of the Halifax on the night of Peter’s courageous flight – March 23, 1944 – consisted of Sergeants Street, Hampton, Devitt, Hasking and Howdle and Pilot Officer Aston.
Shortly before 8pm, radio stations across German-occupied Europe began “the greatest radio blackout Europe has ever experienced”.
At 8.10pm German radio stations reported: “Strong formations of enemy planes are approaching north-west Germany.”
The intended target was unknown but German stations in Frankfurt went off air at 9.10pm after a final concise warning: “Air raid danger.”
Zero hour for the Royal Air Force bombing raid was 9.45pm. It would be the second night-time bombing raid by the RAF in five days.
The Evening Mail reported: “Sitting in his turret with his guns out of action, a Halifax tail gunner, by a running commentary on an enemy fighter’s manoeuvres, enabled his pilot to evade six attacks by a German JU88 during the RAF’s 3,000-ton raid on Frankfurt on Wednesday night, says the Air Ministry.
“Time after time the JU88 swept in to 50 yards, firing its cannon, but Sgt PN Howdle, of Birmingham, the gunner, gave prompt directions to his pilot, who ‘dived all over the sky’. Despite a blazing wing, the Halifax bombed its target and got home safely.”
As well as operations over Frankfurt, Charles Walter Aston and his crew bombed Berlin, Dresden and Nuremburg. Peter declined a promotion, believing it was unlucky to split up the crew, which flew around 60 operations. They all resisted being transferred – and all survived the war.
Peter was presented with his medals at Buckingham Palace by King George VI and was accompanied by his sister Anne.
She said: “I had to do some serious darning of my hand-me-down coat to be presentable!”
After the war, Peter lived and worked in Paris, where his fluent French was useful, before returning to Handsworth.
Work took him to Kettering where he became a journalist on Motor Cycle News magazine for years.
While there, he met his wife Wendy. They met in Kettering’s Prince Of Wales pub, after Peter and the office staff had “put to bed” the weekly MCN.
Once, sent to cover an MCN story in the former East Germany, Peter and Wendy sneaked a visit to Dresden because “Peter wanted to see the city he had only seen from a distance”.
They had two daughters – Tracey, who lives near Swansea – and Penelope.
Tracey still has her father’s old flying boots and kindly provided the photographs for this feature.
“I loved my father very much and was so proud of him,” she said.
Wendy has put the wheels in motion to apply for the Bomber Command clasp for Peter’s medals and a replacement group of miniature medals.
His sister Anne told the Sunday Mercury wryly: “Peter would have been very tickled!”
Peter Noel Howdle died in 2007 and is buried near the village outside Kettering where Wendy lives.
Sources:
www.cwgc.gov.uk
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
www.hampshireairfields.co.uk
www.rafcommands.com
www.birminghammail.co.uk
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 05-Sep-2022 06:18 | Davies 62 | Added |
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