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| Date: | Saturday 6 January 1945 |
| Time: | 14:54 |
| Type: |  Vickers Wellington Mk X |
| Owner/operator: | 1 AGS RAF |
| Registration: | LN553 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 7 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Gwendraeth marshes, near Pembrey airfield, Carmarthenshire, Wales -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Pembrey |
| RAF Pembrey |
On 6 January 1945, the Wellington X LN553 of 1 AGS RAF (Air Gunnery School) took off at 1350 hrs from Pembrey airfield to carry out a cine gun exercise. At 1454 hrs the aircraft approached to land and 100 yards up the runway made a heavy wheel landing (with flaps down), and opened up to go round again. The aircraft climbed steadily to a height of 4-500 feet and retracted the undercarriage. It then turned sharply to port and immediately went into a spin at a steep angle from which it did not recover. It dived into the Kidwelly marshes near the airfield. Six of the crew were killed in the crash, mostly 19 year-old trainee air gunners, and the only survivor was injured. The crash was in fact Carmarthenshire’s worst air disaster of the war.
In the Inquiry into the accident it was considered that “the pilot must have selected flaps up and the flaps must have come up so suddenly, that the aircraft assumed a nose down attitude from which the pilot could not recover.”
Crew:
Flg Off Beverley John Wentworth Thomson RAAF (pilot) KIFA
Wt Off Cecil Gordon Dear (air gunner instructor) KIFA
AC2 Cecil Maurice Field (air gunner under training) KIFA
AC2 Peter Hixon Cain (air gunner under training) KIFA
AC2 John Frederick Bartholomew (air gunner under training) KIFA
AC2 Barry Campbell Hay (air gunner under training) KIFA
AC2 F R Ford (air gunner under training) WIFA
The six casualties are buried in various cemeteries in United Kingdom.
Crew:
F/O Beverley John Wentworth Thomson 21yo 421138 RAAF. Pilot. Killed. 1
Son of Harold Wentworth Thomson and Madge Thomson; husband of Mary Thomson, of Llanelly.
W/O Cecil Gordon Dear 23yo 926813 RAFVR. Air gunner instructor. Killed 2
Son of Ernest and Florence Harriet Dear, of Totton.
AC 2 Cecil Maurice Field 19yo 1892921 RAFVR. Air Gunner U/T. Killed. 3
Son of William and Maud Rosetta Field, of Watford.
AC 2 Peter Hixon Cain 19yo 1893959 RAFVR. Air Gunner U/T. Killed. 4
Son of Sidney Alfred Cain, and of Eva Cain. of St. Pancras, London.
AC 2 John Frederick Bartholomew 19yo 1853291 RAFVR. Air Gunner U/T. Killed. 5
Son of Albert Victor and Edith Florence Bartholomew, of Stratton St. Margaret.
AC 2 Barry Campbell Hay 19yo 1823249 RAFVR. Air Gunner U/T. Killed. 6
Son of William and Rebecca Hay, of Edinburgh.
AC 2 Frank R Ford 19yo RAFVR. Air Gunner U/T. Injured, safe.
Buried:
1 Pembrey (St Illtyd) Churchyard. Row 2. Grave 23.
2 Southampton (Hollybrook) Cemetery. Section M.8. Grave 85.
3 Watford Cemetery. Section B. Uncons. Row 1. Grave 41.
4 Golders Green Crematorium. Panel 1.
5 Devizes Cemetery. Section N.C. Grave 46.
6 Edinburgh (liberton) Cemetery. Section J. Grave 131.
Wreckage:
The two engines were recovered, with one on display at the Industrial Museum near Kidwelly. It is unclear if the tail and rear turret was recovered at the same time. There now stands a small plaque near the site.
Additional Information:
F/O Thompson was born on the 25th of March 1923 in Wagga Wagga New South Wales. He had married a local girl, Mary Harris of Llanelli whilst being stationed at RAF Pembrey only months before the crash.
AC2 Ford survived the war and became a Police officer with the City of Glasgow Police Force, serving for 22 years but sadly passed away during 1970 at the age of 44.
Sources:
https://www.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RC09125_023--1-.pdf
http://ukgo7.com/cmn2/RAF%20Pembrey%20Web%20Details.pdf
http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?7407-Casualties-6-1-1945
https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?88056-Wellington
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Pembrey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidwelly
http://www.maplandia.com/united-kingdom/wales/wales/carmarthenshire-sir-gaerfyrddin/kidwelly/
www.cwgc.org
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 06-Jan-2017 07:31 | Laurent Rizzotti | Added |
| 03-Jan-2025 08:22 | Davies 62 | Updated [Location, Source, Narrative, ] |
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