ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 192806
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| Date: | Saturday 13 January 1945 |
| Time: | 00:55 |
| Type: |  Avro Anson Mk I |
| Owner/operator: | 60 OTU RAF |
| Registration: | NK890 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 6 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Lyneal Wood, Shropshire, England -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | RAF High Ercall, Shropshire |
In the evening of 12 January 1945, the Anson I NK890 of 60 OTU RAF took off from RAF High Ercall with a crew of six on a training exercise. 60 OTU had been set up at RAF High Ercall on 7 May 1943 to train Mosquito aircrew and the purpose was to train the crew for night intruder missions behind enemy lines. Avro Ansons were used to train pilots and navigators in wireless procedures and navigation systems.
At 0055 hrs on the 13th, this aircraft crashed in a wood and burst into flames at Lyneal Wood, 3 miles ESE of Ellesmere Salop.
Crew:
W/O (1368908) John Alexander Campbell RUSSELL (Pilot) RAFVR - KILLED
F/O (182407) William Alfred LOVATT (nav. instr.) RAFVR - KILLED
F/O (165657) Stanley James MARGRIE (nav. ) RAFVR - KILLED
F/O (165566) John Kenneth LANGSTON (nav.) RAFVR - KILLED
F/O (J/45437) Donald Guthrie TINKESS (nav.) RCAF - KILLED
Sgt (1582620) Enoch Gwyn-Fryn WILLIAMS (nav.) RAFVR - KILLED
The board of inquiry found that control of the aircraft was lost and it spun into the ground, but local witnesses’ testimonies tell another story.
Two inhabitants of Lyneal, Noel Griffiths and Arthur Malam, had spent the evening of the 12th at Welshampton to attend a Home Guard get-together. The Home Guard had been stood down in December 1944 and this was more of a social evening. Late that evening or early on the morning of the 13th and possibly alcohol fuelled, they made their journey home. When they were in the vicinity of the canal bridge, which is about half way between Lyneal and Welshampton, they became aware of an aircraft flying overhead towards Lyneal with one of its engines on fire. Anticipating that a crash was imminent they went in hot pursuit as fast as their legs would pedal. The aircraft had struggled on for another half mile or so before plummeting to earth and they were the first to reach the crash scene. The aircraft had come down in a field opposite Brook Cottage, then the home of the Clarke family, on the Lyneal – Loppington road, roughly half way between the village and Noel’s home at Lyneal Mill. On opening the field gate they were initially confronted by the dead body of an airman still wearing his unopened parachute. Blazing wreckage was strewn over a wide area and unable to approach the fuselage of the plane because of the flames they decided to ride back into Lyneal and raise the alarm. Few people had telephones in those days, but they managed to awaken farmer Reg McHugh at Tower Farm who contacted the emergency services.
The facts that the aircraft was in flames and flying towards High Ercall were most probably not known to the board at that time and these have only come to light from the discovery of new eye witness evidence.
In the days following the crash, the accessible wreckage was removed by 34 MU (Maintenance Unit) based at Monkmoor. Although referred to as a maintenance unit it was in reality a salvage unit, RAF controlled but employing civilian workers.
The Sleap based Wartime Aircraft Recovery Group made an initial investigation of the site in the 2000s with metal detectors and magnetometers but failed to turn up anything substantial, merely small bits and pieces. At that time the likely location was ill-defined and they searched the whole field apart from the boggy area which was under water, and which according to recent research was probably the crash location. As the years go by it seems to get more difficult to obtain RAF permission to search what may be defined as a war grave. In this case permission has been refused three times since the initial investigation referred to above. However, armed with the extra evidence unearthed, indications are that it may now become a much more feasible possibility.
Sources:
http://www.rafcommands.com/archive/10413.php
http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?17813-450113-Unaccounted-Airmen-13-01-1945
https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?113085-Anson-MK1-crash-Shropshire
https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?136028-Stanley-James-Margrie
https://www.francisfrith.com/lyneal-wood
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 13-Jan-2017 10:42 | Laurent Rizzotti | Added |
| 07-Dec-2023 18:16 | Nepa | Updated [Departure airport, Narrative, Operator] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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