ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 1642
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| Date: | Tuesday 22 September 1942 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: | Boulton Paul Defiant Mk I |
| Owner/operator: | 7 AGS RAF |
| Registration: | T4075 |
| MSN: | 577 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Sea Off Aberavon Beach, Port Talbot, South Glamorgan, Wales -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | RAF Stormy Down, Port Talbot, South Wales |
Details: Ever since the inception of No.9 Armament Training Station on the 24th of April 1939, Sker beach and Margam Sands have been used as an air-to-ground training range. The range consisted of four 3.4m sq (10ft sq) screen targets, situated north/south from Margam to Sker, with Roman numerals marked 1 to 4 set out on the edge of the dunes. When the tide was out 8 fabric targets were laid out on the beach instead. A further 4 portable targets, marked A to D, were set on the beach for grouping practice. The air-to-air firing was carried out over the Bristol Channel. A conical sleeve, or drogue, was towed by aircraft which was then dropped so that the trainees could check their aim. The North Inner (1,200 ft) ran from Rest Bay to Port Talbot, while the North Outer (3,000) ran parallel to it, but further out. The South Inner (1,200 ft) was from Newton to Nash Point, the South Outer (3,000 ft) was parallel to it, but out to sea. These were flown in a figure of eight pattern, the gunnery aircraft always on the landward side and firing out to sea. The north C-D and south A-B lines (3,000 ft) ran at right angles to the land from Sker and from Ogmore-by-Sea, their directions indicated by a large marker arrow on the ground.
T4075 was on a routine air-air exercise and was seen by locals and the range staff to go into the normal turn at the northern end of the run which became steeper causing the Defiant to stall and crash into the sea just beyond the low water mark just south of Port Talbot. The RAF launch was quick on the scene but to no avail, both the crew had perished in the initial crash with the pilots’ straps severed, allowing him to hit the instrument panel, the crew of the tender were able to recover the bodies before the doomed aircraft finally sank.
Crew:
Flight Sergeant Thomas Wallace Shrimpton (41367) RNZAF. Pilot, aged 25. Killed on active service 22 September 1942. Son of Roy Wallace Shrimpton and of Florence Shrimpton (nee Blunden), husband of Ethel Hebron Shrimpton (nee Smith) of Timaru, Canterbury, New Zealand.
Sgt John Francis Teskey (R/106281) RCAF. Air Gunner Under Training. Killed on active service 22 September 1942. Son of John Francis and Mary Elizabeth Teskey of Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada.
Both crew were buried at Porthcawl Cemetery. in adjacent graves (Block 4. Row H. Grave 2 and Block 4. Row H. Grave 3 respectively)
Wreckage:
Unknown. Although a few aero engines of the Roll Royce Merlin have been inadvertently snagged in fishing nets over the years, one of which could have been off T4075. One of which was on display at the Swansea Bay at War Museum, which has succumbed to the ever-increasing costs. The current state and whereabouts of the artifacts is not known at present.
Memorials:
CWGC Headstones.
Canadian Virtual War Memorial, Toronto. Canada.
Auckland memorial, Wellington, New Zealand.
Aberavon Beach (Welsh: Traeth Aberafan), also known as Aberavon Sands, is a three-mile (5 km) stretch of sandy beach on the north-eastern edge of Swansea Bay in Port Talbot, Wales
Sources:
1. Halley, J J, 1981, Royal Air Force Aircraft T1000-T9999, p 23
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/18087: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C17926700
3. https://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/515732/details/boulton-paul-defiant-i-t4075
4. http://www.ggat.org.uk/timeline/pdf/Military%20Aircraft%20Crash%20Sites%20in%20Southeast%20Wales.pdf
5. http://www.ceninrenewables.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Cottrell-1993-Stormy-AirBase.pdf
6. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2717926/teskey,-john-francis/
7. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2717925/shrimpton,-thomas-wallace/
8. https://www.nzwargraves.org.nz/casualties/thomas-wallace-shrimpton
9. http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C26924.
10. https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2717926
11. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/180516893/john-francis-teskey
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberavon_Beach
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 06-Feb-2008 22:50 | JINX | Added |
| 22-Apr-2015 20:12 | King T. | Updated [Operator, Phase, Nature, Source, Narrative] |
| 20-May-2019 17:54 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 20-May-2019 17:57 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source] |
| 30-May-2019 15:41 | stehlik49 | Updated [Operator] |
| 09-Sep-2022 06:33 | Davies 62 | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
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