Date:	Tuesday 4 February 1941
Time:	day
Type:	De Havilland DH-82A Tiger Moth
Owner/operator:	26 EFTS RAF
Registration:	T5478
MSN:	83211
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Guinea Fowl, Gwelo, Midlands -   Zimbabwe
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Guinea Fowl ALG, Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia
Destination airport:	RAF Guinea Fowl ALG, Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia

Narrative:
De Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moth MSN 83211 (Gipsy Major #83223); Taken on charge as T5478 at 4 MU RAF Cowley, Oxford 14.5.40 and shipped direct to Southern Rhodesia. To 26 EFTS, RAF Guinea Fowl ALG, near Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia.

Written off when crashed 4.2.41 near RAF Guinea Fowl ALG, near Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia. Pilot - Leading Aircraftman Thomas Hastie Kelsall RAAF (Service Number 402509, aged 21) - injured. Struck off charge 4.2.41 as FACE (Flying Accident Cat.E)

NOTE: Several published sources list the Instructor pilot - Leading Aircraftman Tomas Hastie Kelsall RAAF - as killed on 7.7.41 in Tiger Moth T5478 along with Pupil Pilot Peter Seiger Sowerby (Service Number 103664, aged 20). (See links #9 & #10). According to the pilot's biography (see link #11): "He enlisted at Sydney, NSW on 16 September, 1940. He had been injured in a previous aircraft accident in February, 1941 but had been returned to active service after convalescence. Thomas Hastie Kelsall died on 7 July 1941, in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) as the result of an aircraft accident. At the time he was a Leading Aircraftman with 26 Elementary Flight Training School, South Rhodesian Air Force".

All of which implies that Tiger Moth T5478 was destroyed in a crash on 7.7.41 with the fatal loss of two crew, and not 4.2.41 with one crew injured! Which is contrary to the data on the aircraft movement record card (Air Ministry Form 1180) on Tiger Moth T5478

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft T1000-V9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1997 p.43)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/5011: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C16689109
3. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/4962: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C16689060
4. CWGC: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2617234/thomas-hastie-kelsall/
5. CWGC: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2617268/peter-seiger-sowerby/
6. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/production-lists/DH82.pdf
7. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/p832.html
8. http://www.rafcommands.com/database/serials/details.php?uniq=T5478
9. https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/634806
10. http://www.militarian.com/threads/australian-deaths-in-the-raaf-raf-how-did-they-occur-zimbabwe.5511/
11. https://kelsall.one-name.net/roll-of-honour/second-world-war/world-war-2-biographies/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
26-Feb-2022 21:19	Dr. John Smith	Added
28-Feb-2022 09:21	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]
12-Apr-2022 07:28	Ron Averes	Updated [Aircraft type]
13-Apr-2022 22:39	Ron Averes	Updated [Location]