Date:	Friday 21 June 1918
Time:
Type:	Short 184
Owner/operator:	408 Flt RAF
Registration:	N1685
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Newhaven Harbour Breakwater, Newhaven, East Sussex, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Newhaven Seaplane Base, Tide Mills, East Sussex
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Lt John Frederick Raymond Kitchin and 2nd Lt George Cole were killed on 21 June 1918 when their Short 184 seaplane (N1685) collided with the Newhaven Harbour Breakwater during an attempted take-off. The Short had started its take-off run, into a south-westerly wind, in the lee of the breakwater, but it would not 'unstick'. As it approached the breakwater, still it would not lift off the water despite Lt. Kitchin pulling back hard on the control column. This resulted in the tail dropping and the Short colliding with the breakwater.

Crew fatalities
Lieutenant John Frederick Raymond Kitchin, RAF, aged 19
Second Lieutenant George Cole, RAF, aged 26

The following newspaper article gives a few details of the incident (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Monday 24 June 1918)

"SEAPLANE TRAGEDY.
A verdict of "Death from Misadventure" was returned at an inquest at a South-Coast town on Saturday on Lt. John Frederick R. Kitchin, 19, and Second Lieut. George Cole, 26, pilot and observer of a seaplane, who were killed the previous day. The evidence showed that the machine had difficulty in rising from the water owing to rough sea. It struck a pier, burst into flames, overturned and fell into the sea. Medical opinion was that, although the bodies were severely burned, death was probably due to drowning".

The adjacent village of Tide Mills was the site of an experimental seaplane base at the head of the beach. The first formation of No. 242 Squadron RAF was on 15 August 1918 from numbers 408, 409 and 514 Flights at the seaplane station at Newhaven, Sussex. Operating from there and the nearby airfield at Telscombe Cliffs, it was equipped with Short Type 184 seaplanes and carried out anti-submarine patrols over the English Channel until the end of the First World War

1. Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Monday 24 June 1918
2. Yorkshire Evening Post - Friday 28 June 1918
3. National Archives (PRO Kew) File ADM 273/10 (P.283): https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9749422
4. https://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=20526.0
5. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/660083/j-f-r-kitchin/
6. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/660076/g-cole/
7. https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/67039-seaplane-crash-21st-june-1918-newhaven-harbour/
8. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1918a.htm
9. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/military/Crashes_in_the_South_East.pdf
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newhaven_Seaplane_Base
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide_Mills,_East_Sussex
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newhaven,_East_Sussex#Military

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