ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 91026
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| Date: | Friday 26 September 1941 |
| Time: | 16:45 |
| Type: |  Hawker Hurricane Mk IIB |
| Owner/operator: | 79 Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | Z3662 |
| MSN: | NV-?? |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Mynydd Ystradffernol. Rhigos Mountain, Treherbert, Rhondda Cynon Taf -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Fairwood Common, Swansea, West Glamorgan, South Wales |
26th September 1941. The pilot, Robert Early Willson Junior (Service Number 100536, aged 22) from San Antonio, Texas, United States, was killed.
This aircraft was built by Hawker aircraft Limited at Langley as the 21st batch of block five. It was from this block that the Hurricane type took massive advances in its development. Eight aircraft were taken from this block in development of the mark two B and D. This was the wing type and stores the Hurricane could then carry which morphed into the excellent ground attack aircraft, which in turn lessons were learnt in the newer Hawker Typhoon and Tempest aircraft.
79 Squadron at the time of this crash in question was the resident Squadron at RAF Fairwood Common near Swansea.
No.79 Squadron began the Second War as a home-based Hurricane squadron. After taking part in the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain the squadron moved to the Far East, and operated over Burma until the end of the war.
No.79 was not one of the Hurricane squadrons that moved to France in 1939, but did move across to Mons-en-Chaussee on 10 May 1940 at the start of the German offensive in the west. After only ten days the German advance forced the squadron to return to Britain.
No.79 Squadron took part in the opening stage of the Battle of Britain from Biggin Hill, before in July 1940 moving to Sealand (Wales) and then Acklington (Northumberland) for a rest. This second move meant that the squadron was in the right place to intercept a major German raid across the North Sea from Norway on 15 August 1940 that ended with a major British victory.
Soon after this the squadron returned south to Biggin Hill, but by early September No.79 was the only squadron still to be based at the badly damaged Biggin Hill, and on 8 September the squadron moved to South Wales for a rest, and to block German aircraft heading up the Irish Sea to Liverpool.
The squadron remained in south Wales until 4 March 1942, when it sailed for India.
During the time spent at Fairwood, the squadron took on replacement pilots and ground crew, replacement aircraft saw the mark two B with its four extra machine guns in addition to its eight gun platform. Making it the heaviest armed single seat fighter of the war at that point with TWELVE. 303 Browning machine guns.
All types of flying was also conducted including air to ground and traditional air to air dog fighting.
The training area in Wales for air to air live firing was at the Margam ranges over the sea off Kenfig Burrows, which themselves were the air to ground ranges.
At the start of the war, many Personel from other countries volunteered to fight with the RAF. The USA was one of the first to see their young men feel it be their duty to fight for freedom. These men at the beginning served with RAF Squadrons. Then as the war progressed the Eagle Squadrons were formed of solely American pilots. The Eagle Squadrons were no's 71, 121 and 133.
Three Eagle Squadrons were formed between September 1940 and July 1941. On 29 September 1942, they were turned over to the 8th Air Force of the USAAF and became the 4th fighter group. The thousands who volunteered, only 244 Americans served with the Eagle Squadrons. Sixteen Britons also served as squadron and flight commanders.
Pilot Officer Robert Early Willson Jnr was one such 'Eagle ' pilot serving with the RAF and 79 Squadron.
Before his tragic death in 1941 Early Jr went to and then dropped out of college, then moved to New York to study photography, but a constant threat is his love of flying, from his first flight as a passenger, to his first flying lessons, the purchase of his own aircraft and eventually the decision to join the RAF.
He was with 79 Squadron all the way from its early ww2 formation and the battles of France and the Battle of Britain.
80 years ago he was on dog fighting practice over Margam with two others, after the practice they all made for home! As the formation turned they encountered thick cloud and for some unknown reason Willson became separated and ended up flying in the wrong direction. Instead of flying in a north westerly bearing he unknowingly flew NNE at a height of around 10,000 feet. Being totally lost now he descend down through the cloud. Amazingly he avoided hitting the height ground at the head of the Cwmafan valley and found himself in a valley beyond and surrounded by steep hills. He came out of the clouds above Treherbert, seeing the steep ground all around Willson pulled back on the stick but didnt give enough throttle and stalled the engine. The doomed Hurricane struck the valley side of the A4061 trunk road, the Hurricane exploded sending debris over the road and up onto the open ground just above!
The alarm was raised in the town of Treherbert and the local constable arrived at the scene but instantly saw the pilot was beyond any help. All he could do then was to stand guard until the authorities arrived!
The locals who heard the aircraft and the bang looked up towards the Rhigos road but all they could see was cloud. Some adventerous children made the assent. One 11 year old, Len Pearce who heard the low-flying hurricane piloted by Early on his way home from school that Friday afternoon went to the crash site with some of his friends and saw the wrecked Hurricane! The scene that lay before them would stay with Len who in his 80'80still vividly recalls the road being blocked by wreckage and the body of the pilot, and wreckage scattered all around the mountainside above, all of it was on fire.
Crew:
P/O Robert Early Willson 22yo 100536 RAFVR. Pilot. Killed.
Buried:
Killay (St Hilary) Churchyard. Grave 142.
Wreckage:
The vast majority was removed easily, but small fragments still remain.
Additional informaton:
On this day a Spitfire out of fuel, of 53 OTU conducted an emergency landing on the sands at Broughton, Gower. Pilot unhurt and aircraft was filled and successfully took off.
At the churchyard where Early is buried his eternal rest partner is another 79 sqn pilot.
P/O G. L. Coats died in hospital on the 17th September after an automobile accident.
The niece of a US pilot who died after hitting a Welsh mountainside during World War Two has made a poignant first visit to the crash site. More than 70 years after Texas-born Early Willson was killed on the Rhigos mountain near Treherbert, Rhondda, Dolcie ‘Dana’ Ehlinger returned.
On seeing the mountainside loom up, Early pulled up his Hurricane aircraft too sharply to avoid a collision, but stalled the aircraft and hit the ground. He died aged just 22. News of the crash was sent back to his parents – a distraught Dolcie Willson and Robert Early senior.
Yesterday",[5th May 2013] "on her visit to the landmark site in her family’s history, niece Dolcie, 71, who now lives in New Orleans, said: “I was born about seven months after the crash. It’s incredible. His mother or father, I don’t think they could accept it, or my mother. She was very close to her brother growing up. There was a picture and I would say: ‘Who’s that?’ They said: ‘It’s your uncle, he died in the war’. We weren’t in an era where people appreciated their history. They wouldn’t talk about it – I think it was too much emotion. All they received was a telegram, that was it and a letter from the war ministry several weeks later saying it was a nice funeral.”
Early’s body was not repatriated because it was not done for foreign pilots serving in the RAF and his is one of 24 Commonwealth war graves at St Hilary’s Church, Killay, Swansea. The family eventually visited the grave in 1956. And it was spotted there by Iain Smith of Swansea, who emailed newspapers in San Antonio and went to the World War Two memorial in Washington where no record of Early could be found due to the fact he joined the RAF and not the US Air Force.
Eventually Iain raised the matter with Steve Jones, the author of book Fallen Flyers which details stories behind the many flying accidents in and around Gower, and Early’s family was located in the US. The story of Early’s crash was not originally known in the area because it was heavily censored.
But one man who was there was an 11-year-old Len Pearce who heard the low-flying hurricane piloted by Early on his way home from school that Friday afternoon. Shortly after he went to the crash site with some of his friends and saw the wrecked Hurricane on the mountainside. The pilot was beyond help. The police then arrived and mounted a guard over the site.
Mr Pearce, now in his 80s, also revisited the site and met with Dolcie. He said: “Today, I suppose I would be terribly shocked. At that time, it was an adventure – getting near the plane and getting some souvenir bullets.”
Eventually Early’s story has become known and Dolcie went onto write a biography about her uncle made up of letters he wrote to his mother from the age of 10 called “Letters From My Son”. Dolcie said earlier in his life he had been a photographer with the Cotton Club in New York City and had written about Cab Calloway and Katherine Hepburn – including an alleged affair she was having with a pilot. Now there are efforts to raise money for a plaque commemorating his story. Author Mr Jones said: “We hope to get a plaque or small memorial to tell people what went on. Otherwise nobody knows down there in Treherbert.”
Dolcie added: “He got the bug. He loved to fly and in those days you were so free when you flew.”
Sources:
1. Doylerush, E, 2008, Rocks in the Clouds: High Ground Aircraft Crashes in South Wales, p.108
2. http://www.ggat.org.uk/timeline/pdf/Military%20Aircraft%20Crash%20Sites%20in%20Southeast%20Wales.pdf
3. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/niece-world-war-two-american-3414689
4. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2717300/willson,-robert-early-junior/
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhigos
6. www.rafcommands.com
7. Air ministry form 1180
Images:
Memorial cairn image taken by self Sunday 26th. CWGC headstone taken Saturday 25th.
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 16-May-2019 20:38 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Date, Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 17-May-2019 18:54 | stehlik49 | Updated [Operator] |
| 09-Oct-2019 17:19 | ALAN MACKAY | Updated [Cn] |
| 26-Sep-2021 19:18 | Davies 62 | Updated [Time, Location, Source, Narrative, Photo] |
| 27-Sep-2021 09:55 | Davies 62 | Updated [Aircraft type, Photo] |
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