ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 236531
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| Date: | Saturday 9 May 1942 |
| Time: | 04:15 |
| Type: |  Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk V |
| Owner/operator: | 10 OTU RAF |
| Registration: | P5057 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Location: | Waun Garno, Mid Wales -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Abingdon |
| RAF Abingdon |
Flew into high ground on a night navigation exercise, none of the crew survived.
Sgt Ralph William MORIN (R/92143), 19, RCAF - Brookwood Military Cemetery
Sgt Douglas Morton SELLARS (1164554), 27, RAFVR - Brookwood Military Cemetery
Sgt Stewart Thomas PATERSON (R/58431), RCAF - Brookwood Military Cemetery
Sgt Donald Haydn JONES (1311541), 28, RAFVR - Ferndale Cemetery
Sgt Arthur John Bruce KEMP (916043), 27, RAFVR - Theydon Bois (St Mary) Church).
Mission: Training.
Details:
The land which is now Dalton Army Barracks was taken over in the late nineteen twenties by the Air Ministry. The airfield was built and in the early thirties was used as a training facility. Early in WW2 on the 8th of April 1940, 97 and 166 squadrons were based at RAF Abington and were formed into No 10 OTU. There were twenty-five OTU’s around the country operated by the RAF.
During the war there were around 86 incidents of aircraft flying with 10 OTU with 180 aircrew killed in training. There are nine crashes within two miles of the airfield.
P5057 took off late in the evening on a night navigational exercise over mid Wales and back. The aircraft and its crew were listed as missing the following morning. Expecting the missing crew might be found on the high ground of Wales. The Whitley was found on slight rising ground just four miles southwest of Carno which is in the northern part of Powys that levels out between 500 and 800 feet above sea level between the high ground south and the mountains of Snowdonia.
The crash site offered nothing for the reason why P5057 high the ground, no mountain, pylons or even trees, the investigation found no issues with the engines or instruments, they found the pilot had badly misjudged the height badly causing the crash!
Todd Yates who is the great nephew of the pilot Sgt Morin, travelled thousands of miles from Canada to visit the remote site in mid Wales. He has been researching the tragedy for a year since he made a pledge to his family to find out where and how 19-year-old pilot, Flight Sergeant Ralph William Morin, died. His search led him to an area of peat bog near the Powys town of Llanidloes, called Waen Carno, where his relation's Armstrong Whitworth Whitely bomber came down.
The location is so isolated that Mr Yates required a detailed Ordinance Survey map and a local guide to find it. Searching the internet at first for information last year, he then turned to the Canadian government for help, and they provided him with his great uncle's service record. After reading these records and the crash report Todd was heard to say to his guid.
"It's unclear how or why the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber crashed. I'm not sure if it was due to pilot error, bad weather or down to mechanical problems”.
He was determined to see the site, although the only way to get there was by foot. He said
“It was strange, but after searching for information for so long it was so nice to finally find the crash site. It was strange, but I actually felt something when I was there. I can't describe what it was, and I'm not an emotional person, but it was some sort of connection with the past - I can't really describe it."
The crash AM Form 1180 states that it was probable that the pilot misjudged and flew into high ground! (The ground here is an extremely flat plateau rising to the north, peaking at around 600 feet)! Sometimes when the cause of the crash is not evident, it is a sad fact that the reason was often given as ‘Pilot Error’.
Crew:
Sgt Ralph William Morin 19yo R/92143 RCAF. Pilot. Killed. 1
Son of Joseph Ralph and Jessie Dalgarus Morin, of Prince Rupert, British Columbia
Sgt Douglas Morton Sellars 27yo 1164554 RAFVR. Bdr. Killed. 2
Son of Percy Douglas and Dora Sellars, of Solihull, Warwickshire.
Sgt Stewart Thomas Paterson R/58431 RCAF. A/Gnr. Killed. 3
Sgt Donald Haydn Jones 28yo 1311541 RAFVR. W/Op-A/gnr. Killed. 4
Son of Charles and Hannah, of Mardy
Sgt Arthur John Bruce Kemp 27yo 916043 RAFVR. W/Op-A/Gnr. Killed. 5
Son of Jabez Basil Hubert and Mary Alice Kemp, of Theydon Bois. Scoutmaster.
Buried:
1 Brookwood Military Cemetery 37. J. 5.
2 Brookwood Military Cemetery 21. B. 14.
3 Brookwood Military Cemetery 37. J. 4.
4 Ferndale Cemetery Cons. Row C1. Grave 57.
5 Theydon Bois (St Mary) Churchyard. Grave 300.
Wreckage:
Some fragments remain, but the site is extremely difficult to find within the mass of heather, peat bog and peat hags, in the dips of the hags where the wreckage lays there is nothing on the skyline to give the site away.
Additional Information:
Brookwood is 30 miles from London (M3 to Bagshot and then A322). The main entrance to Brookwood Military Cemetery is on the A324 from the village of Pirbright. Brookwood Military Cemetery is owned by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the United Kingdom, covering approximately 37 acres. In 1917, an area of land in Brookwood Cemetery (originally The London Necropolis) was set aside for the burial of men and women of the forces of the Commonwealth and Americans, who had died, many of battle wounds, in the London district. This site was further extended to accommodate the Commonwealth casualties of the Second World War, and American, Belgian, Czech, Dutch, French and Polish plots containing the graves of Allied casualties. There are also German and Italian plots where prisoners of war lie buried.
Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/3714273.stm
cwgc.org
www.ukairfields.org
www.rcafassociation.ca
nationalarchives.gov.uk
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 29-May-2020 15:42 | ordavies | Added |
| 27-Apr-2022 15:23 | Davies 62 | Updated [Other fatalities, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
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