Date:	Thursday 25 September 1941
Time:	03:20 LT
Type:	Vickers Wellington Mk I
Owner/operator:	15 OTU RAF
Registration:	Z8354
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 6
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Jarn Mound, Sandy Lane, Boars Hill, Berkshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Harwell, Oxfordshire
Destination airport:	RAF Abingdon, Oxfordshire

Narrative:
Wellington Z8354 of 15 OTU, RAF crashed at 03:20 hours on 25th September 1941, at Jarn Mound, Sandy Lane, Boars Hill, Berkshire. The accident occurred when the aircraft was attempting to land after the port engine had failed. There were a crew of six, all were killed in the crash:

Crew:
66573 P/O Robert Andrew McCONNOCHIE (Captain (Pilot))
402581 P/O Harry Maynard WALSH (RAAF) (Observer)
1176661 Sgt Louis Charles Joseph MARIEN
930360 Sgt Marten William FOXON (Wireless Op)
929624 Sgt Frederick Jackson KEMP (Wireless Op / Air Gunner)
1377658 Sgt Edward MURCH (Air Gunner)

P/O McConnochie and P/O Walsh are buried in the Harwell Cemetery, UK. Sgt Marien was cremated in the Leicester City (Gilroes) Crematorium. Sgt Kemp is buried in the Marton (St Paul) Church Burial Ground, UK.

The accident report states that they had lost an engine and were circling to land at Abingdon. The crash crater can still be seen to this day just in side the field in Sandy Lane. The crash made the national press when a young German man who was living nearby filmed the wreckage and was arrested for allegedly for spying and was deported.

This crash has been perhaps the better known of all incidents in this area during WW2, as the aircraft crashed in almost the same place as Whitley K7255 did in 1940. A detailed eyewitness report is in the book "A BOARS HILL ANTHOLOGY" by Margeret Aldis and Patricia Sims

1. https://www.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RC09125_022--1-.pdf
2. http://www.rafabingdon10otu.co.uk/id6.html
3. AIR81/9233
4. Bomber Command Losses In the Middle East and Med. (Volume 1: 1939-1942) David Gunby & Pelham Temple, page 85 (altough they have a wrong date: 22-09-1941)
5.CWGC

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
20-Apr-2017 21:58	Dr.John Smith	Added
20-Apr-2017 21:59	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Narrative, ]
20-Apr-2017 22:01	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative, ]
20-Apr-2017 22:02	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Narrative, ]
27-Nov-2018 20:06	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator, ]
13-Oct-2025 11:09	MMR	Updated [Source, Narrative, ]