ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 18793
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| Date: | Tuesday 29 August 1944 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito FB Mk VI |
| Owner/operator: | British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) |
| Registration: | G-AGKR |
| MSN: | ex.HJ792 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Missing - North Sea north of Rattray Head, Aberdeenshire, Scotland -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Cargo |
| Departure airport: | Gothenburg airfield, Sweden |
| RAF Leuchars, Fife, Scotland |
Mosquito HJ792/G-AGKR: Took off for a return Cargo flight from Gotherburg, Sweden to Leuchars. 29/08/1944
Missing over North sea between Gothenburg and RAF Leuchars. No trace of the aircraft or crew was ever found
Crew:
Capt. (78852) John Henry WHITE (pilot) RAFVR: killed
R/O (71487) John Conleth GAFFNEY (nav./radio officer) RAFVR: killed
The flight was made by Capt White and Radio Officer Gaffney on the night of 28 Aug 1944. White/Gaffney left Leuchars for Stockholm in Mosquito G-AGKR and they were followed by two more Mosquitoes, Longden/Miller in G-AGKO and Carroll/Weir in G-AGGC.
When they approached the Swedish Grebbestad radio beacon, just short of Norway, the weather turned bad; it was the worst they had ever encountered on this route. They flew into storm clouds with lashing rain, strong winds and turbulence and they had about 60 degrees drift on track to approach the beacon. They changed course to the south for Gothenburg and so strong was the tail wind that they sighted the airfield beacon almost immediately. The airfield was experiencing a blustering gale with driving rain.
Whilst loading the aircraft the crews consulted the Gothenburg Met officer on the prospect of returning to Leuchars. White/Gaffney decided to return to Leuchars although their artificial horizon was unserviceable and Longden/Miller decided to follow. Carroll/Weir decided not to go any further.
White/Gaffney took-off for Leuchars and Longden/Miller followed fifteen minutes later. Longden decided to fly through the Skagerrak at 10,000 ft instead of the usual 20,000 feet. However on reaching the Grebbestad radio beacon they were surprised to find the weather had cleared. Longden eased back and climbed to 20,000 feet; their flight time from out had been 3 hrs 8 min but the return flight only took 2 hr 30 min.
When Longden/Miller landed at Leuchars they were surprised not to see White/Gaffney. Longden/Miller waited in the flying control room for news until they knew White/Gaffney would have run out of fuel. They then went to their lodgings.
Next day Miller, who had navigated Longden, went to the RAF radar centre who had reported an unusual plot of an unidentified aircraft approaching the north coast of Scotland from the direction of Norway but well north of the normal Mosquito track. Before reaching the Scottish coast just north of Aberdeen, the aircraft had altered course 45 degrees to starboard and headed for Wick. It disappeared from the plot about three-quarters of the way there about the time White’s Mosquito would have run out of fuel. It seemed quite incredible that White’s aircraft would have been so far off course and heading on a north-westerly track.
The Swedish airline ABA was agent both for BOAC and Deutsche Luft Hansa (DLH). The BOAC representative unofficially asked ABA to ask DLH to ask Luftwaffe HQ in Oslo if they had shot down White’s Mosquito. Very quickly came the reply that Luftwaffe had not taken any action that night but the same night the Luftwaffe station at Lister, on the southern tip of Norway, reported hearing an aircraft flying westwards very high in bad weather. The time of the report seems to indicate that it was White’s Mosquito.
Miller later said, in an interview just before he died, that he thought the White/Gaffney Mosquito flew as if it had no nav-aids. This would be the case if they had lost electrical power. The battery had a nominal endurance of 30 minutes but Miller said that in his experience the battery would not power the radio for more than 5-10 minutes; the aircraft would then lose the artificial horizon and the ability to take radio bearings. The instrument lights would probably fail within the half hour and the compass would then only be readable with a torch.
Miller thought that, when north of Rattray Head, they may have expected to be in sight of Scotland. Seeing nothing they presumably thought they were way south of track so altered course northwards. It looks as if the Mosquito missed Scotland altogether, ran out of fuel and crashed in the North Sea.
Sources:
1. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AGKR.pdf
2. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH98%20prodn%20list.txtt
3. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1531410/john-henry-white/
4. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1270541/john-conleth-gaffney/
5. https://rin.org.uk/blogpost/1706945/307640/Who-s-a-Hero-Three-WW2-Special-Operations-Part-Two
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattray_Head
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-May-2008 11:10 | ASN archive | Added |
| 23-Nov-2009 10:45 | NePa | Updated |
| 10-Jan-2010 23:27 | NePa | Updated [Aircraft type, Country, Narrative] |
| 27-Mar-2011 13:20 | Nepa | Updated [Registration, Source, Narrative] |
| 24-Jun-2014 18:48 | Next | Updated [Destination airport, Narrative] |
| 29-Apr-2015 19:24 | SIS07 | Updated [Location] |
| 21-Aug-2015 16:15 | Nepa | Updated [Aircraft type, Cn, Location, Destination airport, Narrative] |
| 12-Dec-2015 19:40 | TB | Updated [Aircraft type] |
| 30-Aug-2018 20:04 | Nepa | Updated [Registration, Cn, Operator, Source, Narrative, Operator] |
| 09-Sep-2018 17:58 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
| 06-Dec-2021 19:17 | Nepa | Updated [Departure airport, Source, Narrative, Operator] |
| 31-Jul-2022 19:59 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Narrative, Operator] |
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