ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 150655
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| Date: | Wednesday 18 March 1942 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: |  Supermarine Spitfire Mk Ia |
| Owner/operator: | 53 OTU RAF |
| Registration: | X4612 |
| MSN: | 1220 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Glanmore Farm, Glarmorgan, Wales -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Llandow, Glamorgan |
| Return. |
First Flown 9-10-40; to RAF at 6 MU Brize Norton 10-10-40. To 66 Squadron 15-10-40. Damaged 15-10-40 when forced-landed at RAF Gravesend, Kent, due to big-end failure (engine failure). Pilot K A Lawrence unhurt. Aircraft damaged but repairable 15-10-40. To AST (Airwork Service Training) for repairs. After repairs issued to 53 OTU 25-6-41.
Written off (damaged beyond repair) when engine failed and aircraft crashed at Glanmore Farm Glamorgan 18-3-42
Details:
This Spitfires history prior to its final demise must warrant as the shortest within this area of memorandum in 52 degrees 37 N in Wales.
She first flew from Eastleigh to be fitted out with 6MU on the 9th of October 1940. She was allocated to 66 squadron on the 15th of that month.
In late September 1940, Air Chief Marshal Hug Dowding was faced with two problems. The first was a change in Luftwaffe tactics. Until then the main daylight striking force had been the German bombers, heavily escorted by fighters. Reichmarshall Hurman Goring’s aim had been to wear down the RAF fighters, but instead he saw an unacceptable level of his bombers lost. Whilst fighter-bombers, known to the Luftwaffe as Jabos, had been tried by Luftwaffe units during the Battle, these had mainly been small and low-altitude efforts. Now the bombers switched mainly to night attacks, and the day operations more often consisted of high-flying Bf109 sweeps and large numbers of Bf 109 Jabos with escorts. This was intended both to force the RAF fighters to engage the Luftwaffe fighters and keep the pressure on the RAF. The Jabos could always jettison their bombs and revert to being fighters if intercepted. The Jabos were not much of a tactical threat in that they were highly inaccurate when dropping their bombs, but against area targets such as London they could still cause significant damage and civilian deaths. It was impossible for the Fighter Command Controllers to identify which incoming raids were fighter sweeps (which posed no threat to Britain and were to be avoided), which were the escorted Jabo raids, and which were escorted bombers, the last two requiring different tactics to minimise RAF losses and maximise those of the Luftwaffe.
Dowding's second problem was how to hide the information the RAF was gleaning from Ultra, the information from interception of German transmissions encoded with the Enigma Machine, Ultra had given the RAF advance warning of some major Luftwaffe raids, and the general radio interceptions from the Y-Stations had also provided clues. Dowding did not want the Germans becoming suspicious of how well prepared the British were getting.
Dowding's solution was to create a special unit of experienced pilots to patrol the Channel during daylight hours, alone or in pairs, identifying which incoming raids were Jabos and which were fighter sweeps, (also provide information on German naval activity). The activities of this unit would also provide for the Germans a believable source for the RAF's preparedness, protecting Ultra This unit was called No. 421 Flight.
No. 421 Reconnaissance Flight was a specialist RAF fighter flight created on 21 September 1940 to patrol the Channel and provide early warning of the types of incoming raids, it was later expanded to full squadron strength and renumbered as 91 squadron on the 11th of January 1941. Its role led to its pilots being nicknamed "Jim Crows".
The physical elements of the flight started on the 8th of October then with a steady influx of aircraft, X4912 was transferred literally from one side of RAF Gravesend to the other on the 15th of October, P/O Lawrence was instructed to take her up on an air test with W/T being the main. However, Lawrence knowing that this was a ‘straight off the line’ aircraft with zero combat hours and barley any flight time, was shocked when the engine seized suddenly and without any warning whatsoever! He turned her into wind being lucky that he was still within the airfield vicinity. The Flight records quote
“P/O Lawrence successfully landed his Spitfire with engine seized. Subsequent examination revealed Big End Failure”!
X4912 was sent off to AST (Airwork Service Training) where she stayed until posting to 53 OTU on the 25th of June 1941. She served for only eight months when on the 18th of March 1942 she was airborne off the coast at Ogmore when her engine seized again. This time in the hands of a rookie pilot, the only option for him was to put here down in a field below near Southerndown. The pilot was uninjured, unlike his Spitfire, this time there was no coming back from this episode.
Crew:
Okay but no details.
Wreckage:
Unknown.
Additional Information:
Keith Lawrence was born on 25 November 1919 in Waitara, New Zealand. He was educated at Southland Boys High School between 1933 and 1936 and after leaving school he worked for two years at the National Bank of New Zealand. In June 1938 he applied for a four-year short service commission and was provisionally accepted in November. On 1 February 1939 he sailed for the UK aboard the RMS Tainui with a large draft of other candidates.
Lawrence reported for training as a pupil pilot at 10 E & RFTS. After successful training on the D. H. Tiger Moth, he was posted to No. 1 Depot at RAF Uxbridge to be commissioned into the RAF.
After completion, he joined the newly formed 234 squadron on the 6th of November 1939. Initially the Squadron kept up flying hours in Avro Tutors and Miles Magisters. Further training started on the 17th of December on the Bristol Blenheim. At the end of March, the Squadron began to convert over to the Spitfire and became operational with them on 8 May. From 9 May 1940 Lawrence was sent for a month's training to become the Squadron Navigation Officer, flying Avro Ansons at the School of Air Navigation at RAF St Athan.
The Battle of Britain.
On 30 June he re-joined 234 Squadron which had moved to RAF St Eval, Cornwall. Here the unit's main duties were patrols, scrambles, and convoy protection. On the 8th of July he shared in the destruction of a Ju-88, the squadron's first victory. On 12 July he damaged a Ju 88. On 15 August he was posted to 234 Squadron.
On the afternoon of the 7th of September, the Luftwaffe made its first heavy daylight raid on London. 234 Squadron was amongst those scrambled to intercept the enemy bomber force as it retired. Lawrence damaged a Dornier 17 and then joined an attack on a formation of 12 109’s, one of which he pursued to the coast and shot down. Two days later, 234 Squadron was posted back to its old base at St Eval to be rested, receive replacement aircraft and train new pilots being posted in from the OTU’s, the squadron had lost 18 Spitfires in 4 weeks fighting. Lawrence did not remain with it, but was posted to 603 squadron at RAF Hornchurch, Essex. This was in line with the policy of Keith Park to hold back up to six experienced pilots when a squadron was being rested and post them to squadrons still in action. On the 15th of September he claimed a Bf 109 destroyed and two more damaged, and on the 17th of September a further Bf 109.
On 8 October 1940 Lawrence was posted to the newly formed 421 Reconnaissance Flight, initially based at Gravesend, Kent, and subsequently at West Malling, Biggin Hill and Hawkinge. On the 23rd of November, he damaged a Bf 110. On the 27th of November, whilst flying alone on an early morning weather recce over Ramsgate he unsuccessfully attacked 3 Bf 109s from II./JG-26 but was 'bounced' and shot down by the fourth. One wing was blown off Lawrence's Spitfire, and he found himself falling in his stocking feet with his right arm useless. He managed to deploy his parachute and went into the sea. He was spotted and picked up by a lifeboat. Taken to Ramsgate, he was admitted to hospital with a fractured right leg, a lacerated left leg and dislocated right shoulder. He was then transferred to RAF hospital at RAF Halton where he met his future wife, Kay.
Lawrence was released from Service on 11 March 1946. He returned to New Zealand in late May 1946 and went into the Reserve in September.
Lawrence married Kay Harte in 1945 and they had two daughters and three sons. They later returned from New Zealand to Great Britain where he ran retail and commercial enterprises. He retired at age 65 to Devon, where he flew for 18 years with the Devon and Somerset Gliding Club. In 2002, as a part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations Carolyn Grace invited the Battle of Britain Fighter Association to nominate a member for a flight in The Grace Spitfire. As Lawrence was then still flying, being current on the Club's single seaters, he was nominated by the Association and gratefully accepted the invitation for his first Spitfire flight for 57 years.
In 2010, the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Lawrence was invited to represent 'The Few' by filming a short sequence with the BBC at the Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel-Le-Fern on the Kent coast for inclusion in the Festival of remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.
Sadly, Keith Lawrence died on the 2nd of June 2016 at the age of 96.
Sources:
1. Halley, J, 1984, Royal Air Force Aircraft X1000-X9999, Z1000-Z9999, p 16.
2. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p015.html
3. http://www.ggat.org.uk/timeline/pdf/Military%20Aircraft%20Crash%20Sites%20in%20Southeast%20Wales.pdf
4. http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showpost.php?p=192799&postcount=7
militaryhistory.fandom.com
421reconnaissanceflight.wikipedia.org
nationalarchives
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 12-Nov-2012 21:33 | angels one five | Added |
| 30-Nov-2012 05:18 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Narrative] |
| 25-Feb-2014 00:54 | angels one five | Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative] |
| 25-May-2015 11:07 | Opietz | Updated [Operator, Location, Departure airport] |
| 20-May-2019 23:52 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 20-May-2019 23:53 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Date] |
| 25-May-2019 11:32 | stehlik49 | Updated [Operator, Location] |
| 25-Feb-2022 21:01 | Davies 62 | Updated [Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
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