Date:	Monday 23 September 1940
Time:	night
Type:	Fairey Battle Mk I
Owner/operator:	18 OTU RAF
Registration:	K9480
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	5
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Corner of Ruffs Drive and Laughton Crescent, Hucknall, Notts. -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Hucknall, Nottinghamshire
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Fairey Battle K9480 belonging to 18 OTU (Operational Training Unit) at RAF Hucknall, Nottinghamhire, was engaged in circuits and landings practice (circuits & bumps). LAC Rozmiarak had successfully completed three such circuits; on his fourth, while in a left-hand climbing turn, the aircraft stalled and crashed onto a semi-detached council house on the corner of Ruffs Drive and Laughton Crescent, Hucknall. Sadly, in addition to the pilot, the five occupants of one of the houses (a married couple and their three children) were also killed.

The occupants of the other house, the Smith family, were injured, as were an unnamed fireman and an airman from RAF Hucknall who went to assist.

According to an eyewitness report by Thelma Hopewell (nee Thelma Smith), who lived next door to the house that was destroyed by the Fairey Battle (on the "BBC Peoples War" website - see link #8):

"In September 1940, we lived in Lawton Crescent, Hucknall. There was 10 children. There was a plane crash. We lived about 400 yards away from Hucknall Aerodrome. This particular night, mum was expecting another baby, we were all in bed. It was pitch black, due to the blackout, and what happened was, as it was all blackout, this plane with a Polish pilot flew too low and crashed into the two houses on the corner. They were Semi-detached, our house and the Evans'. The people next door called Evans all died - 5 of them, children included. My father got us all out and we had to be divided up to relatives. Our house was gutted.

The Salvation Army were absolutely wonderful, they came with all sorts of clothes and did a collection. We were rehoused on the other side of Hucknall. My father was a miner at the time. We lost everything. But we were alive, that was the main thing. My sister was born during an air raid in the November 1940.

Some bricks fell on my shoulder. I can remember the flames. My dad and a neighbour rescued us with ladders up to the windows. I didn't go to school for so many months because of the upset and upheaval."

Crew of Battle K9480:
LAC (Korporal) Edmund V ROZMIAREK (Pilot, Service Number P/780509, aged 25) - killed on active service 23/9/1940, buried at Hucknall Cemetery, Section D Grave 4.

Civilian Casualties in House
Albert EVANS Civilian (Aged 28)
Alice EVANS Civilian (Aged 30)
Ronald EVANS Civilian (Aged 8)
Alice EVANS Civilian (Aged 6)
John EVANS Civilian (Aged 2)

LAC Rozmiarek was the first Polish airman to lose his life in a Bomber Command OTU accident, while Mr Evans and his family were the first civilian casualties. According to one source (see link #11) the gap in the houses on Ruffs Drive (where the house that the Evans family lived) was still present in 2017. it seems no one wanted to build on the site of a house where two adults and three children died.

1. The K File - The RAF Of the 1930s (James J Halley, Air Britain)
2. The Battle File (Sidney Shail, Air Britain, 1997 p 138)
3. http://macr.moonfruit.com/battle-k9480/4532307060
4. Hucknall Dispatch newspaper 6 March 2014: https://www.hucknalldispatch.co.uk/news/memory-ofpolish-airman-kept-alive-2299667
5. https://35squadron.wordpress.com/2018/02/13/fairey-battle/
6. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/7504207/EDMUND%20ROZMIAREK/
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Battle#Accidents_and_incidents
8. https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/04/a5541004.shtml
9. https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/120387/
10. https://www.visit-nottinghamshire.co.uk/downloads/dmsimgs/Notts_Aviation_Memorials_189885421.pdf
11. https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=350097.18

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
22-Oct-2020 20:45	Dr. John Smith	Added
25-Oct-2020 14:40	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Operator]