Date:	Friday 22 January 1943
Time:	14:50 LT
Type:	Boulton Paul Defiant Mk I
Owner/operator:	276 Sqn RAF
Registration:	T4051
MSN:	553
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Stafford Farm, West Stafford, Dorchester, Dorset -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Harrowbeer, Yelverton, Devon
Destination airport:	RAF Harrowbeer, Yelverton, Devon

Narrative:
Boulton Paul Defiant Mk.I T4051, 276 Squadron, RAF Harrowbeer, Yelverton, Devon: No 276 Squadron lost a Defiant on 22 January (1943), due to the weather rather than enemy action. Flight Sergeant K Hall and Flight Sergeant W Elder took off in T4051 at 1:55 p.m, to search for three men known to be in the water - without a dinghy. So despite the weather, both knew they had to find them and drop a dinghy before the three men died of cold. Bill Elder recalls:

"We searched for 50 minutes off the south coast and finally sighted the three aircrew in Mae Wests. We dropped them a large dinghy but by now the weather was deteriorating rapidly so we had to head back.

On nearing our home base, cloud came down to the 200 feet level, and as we were also running short of fuel my pilot ordered me to bale out when we were around 1,500 feet. I landed on the white chalk of Cerne Abbas Giant, north of Dorchester".

Flight Sergeant Hall also baled out successfully. Aircraft came down at Stafford Farm, West Stafford, Dorchester, Dorset.

Crew of Defiant T4051:
Flight Sergeant K. HALL (pilot) RAF - OK.
Flight Sergeant W. ELDER (pilot) RAF - OK.

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft T1000-V9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain. 1997)
2. "Another Kind Of Courage: Stories of the UK-based Walrus Air-Sea Rescue Squadrons" by Norman Franks.
Patrick Stevens Ltd, Sparkford,1994. p.58
3. 276 Squadron ORB for October 1941 to January 1943: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 27/1597: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2504239
5. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?7791-430121-Unaccounted-airmen-21-1-1943&p=45039#post45039
6. https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101119844-stafford-farm-house-west-stafford

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-Feb-2008 13:17	JINX	Added
23-Apr-2015 18:52	Dandy	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]