ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 269548
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| Date: | Monday 24 November 1941 |
| Time: | |
| Type: | Bristol Beaufort MkII |
| Owner/operator: | Unassigned |
| Registration: | AW292 |
| MSN: | 9972 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Unknown |
| Location: | Fishware Farm Near RAF Llandow -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Ferry/positioning |
| Departure airport: | Filton |
| RAF Llandow/RAF St Athan |
Squadron: No2 FPP.
Details:
On 15 June 1935 the Bristol Aeroplane Company became a public limited company. By this time the Company had a payroll of 4200, mostly in the engine factory, and was well positioned to take advantage of the huge re-armament ordered by the British Government in May of that year. By the time war broke out in 1939 the Bristol works at Filton were the largest single aircraft manufacturing unit in the world.
Bristol's most important contributions to the RAF during World War II were the Blenheim and the Beaufighter. In 1940 two shadow factories was set up in the Weston-super-Mare area to produce Beauforts and Beaufighters, one at Oldmixon on the western boundary of the airport and one at Banwell. Also, an underground factory was built by Alfred McAlpine at Hawthorn in 1940 to accommodate the company's experimental department.
The Type 152 Bristol Beaufort was a torpedo bomber derived from Bristol’s submission to meet AM Spec’ M.15/35 and G/24/35, to meet the requirements of a medium range bomber. Initially fitted with two 1130hp Bristol Taurus VI engines, later Mk1’s featured ASV radar and Bristol Taurus XII engines. The mark 2 Beaufort came with nothing visual to tell the difference but were fitted with two American Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp engines which pushed out over 800 hp more!
AW292 was in the first full production of the MkII from reconfiguring from the MkI line. The first run was of only ten units, the next batch featuring AW292 got to 45 units built at the Filton Works in Bristol. The facts point out that AW292 had just come off the assembly line at Filton and was being ferried to 38MU at St Athan for installation of Radar and other military equipment. The pilot was a member of No2 Ferry Pilots Pool and a member of the ATA.
The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up during the Second World War and headquartered at White Waltham Airfield that ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factories, assembly plants, transatlantic delivery points, maintenance units (MUs), scrap yards, and active service squadrons and airfields.
AW292 was in the cuircuit for landing at either RAF Station (St Athan & Llandow being so close and linked by distribution track). The destination is not clear, but it hit a tree at Fishware Farm just outside the perimeter of RAF Llandow after both engines failed and crashed. It is also not clear if the Beaufort was written off or repaired.
Crew:
1st Officer Jerzy Drewiecki M.263 ATA. Injured.
Wreckage:
Removed.
Additional information:
The Polish ATA pilot survived the war as the delivery records of this Spitfire state:
“LA264
test flown Flt/Lt Loweth VASM 25mins 23-4-45 del 33MU by F/O Drzewiecki ATA 2-5-45 VASM 6-7-45 mods nes 16-6-53 sold scrap R.J.Coley 25-8-54.”
This was a Spitfire F21 and the second to last production variant of the type.
Jerzy Drzewiecki was born on the 7th of August 1902 in Warsaw, Poland. He was educated at Warsaw University of Technology and became an aircraft designer. A was one of the three founding members of RWD, which was a Polish aircraft construction bureau that was active between 1925 and 1939.
In 1939 he fled the German – Soviet occupied Poland in the September and managed to get to the UK. Here he found work as a draughtsman with the Westland Aircraft Company from February 1940. But he soon became frustrated that they would not let him undertake any ‘creative’ work.
With his background of over 1500 hours in over 60 land and seaplanes, he volunteered with the ATA. He was posted to fly with No’s 2, 6, 9 and 14 FPP. He lived at 4 West Park in Yeovil during 1941.
After his crash in Beafort AW292 he was ‘off sick’ from work from the 24th of November until the 19th of January 1942. For Jerzy this was not the first (two crashes previously, on in June 1941) and it wouldn’t be his last, he was involved in air accidents on the 24th of February 1943 (no details). Then his last accident on the 27th of June 1945 unfortunately no details.
His overall report from his commanding officers was “A most reliable and experienced pilot. With excellent discipline.”
Post WW2 and after working for the Bristol Aircraft Company and again becoming frustrated by what he saw as a lack of opportunity and progress in that career, he emigrated to Canada in December 1947.
He sadly passed away on the 15th of May 1990, aged 88.
Sources:
rafcommands.com
www.airhistory.org.uk
myheritage.com
ata-ferry-pilots.org
Images:
.jpg)
myheritage.com (I have labelled this image.)
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 12-Nov-2021 07:05 | Davies 62 | Added |
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