Date:	Tuesday 29 December 1942
Time:	23:00
Type:	Vickers Wellington Mk 1c
Owner/operator:	11 OTU RAF
Registration:	R1174
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 5
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Mynydd Castleblythe, near Fishguard, Pembrokeshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Westcott, Oxfordshire
Destination airport:	Return.

Narrative:
This Wellington was assigned to 11 OTU, RAF Westcott, Oxfordshire. The pilot lost control of the plane in cumulo-nimbus clouds on 29th December 1942 whilst on a cross-country navigation exercise. The crew bailed out, but 2 of the 5 were killed. The aircraft came down at Mynydd Tre-newydd, near Fishguard, Pembrokeshire


Details:
R1174 was one of 2,685 Wellingtons built at Weybridge, Chester and Blackpool. It holds the distinction of having been the only British bomber that was produced for the duration of the war and produced in a greater quantity than any other British-built bomber. The Wellington remained as first-line equipment when the war ended, although it had been increasingly relegated to secondary roles. R1174 was destined to be used in the training role and went to No.11 OTU at RAF Bassingbourn which was part of No.6 Group RAF Bomber Command during 1940. During the beginning of 1942, 11 OTU was involved in seven operational bombing sorties with R1174 flying on four.
Eventually the Unit moved to RAF Westcott. The station opened in September 1942 along with its satellite station RAF Oakley. The airfield was equipped with 3 concrete runways. The training continued and eighty years ago R1174 was on a night navigation exercise which took her over the Midlands then out towards a Latitude mid-way between Morcombe and the Isle of Man, then due southwest along the coast of Wales before a turn East over Pembrokeshire, up the Severn Estuary and back to Buckinghamshire and home.
Unfortunately, just as she and her crew were near to crossing the coast near Fishguard they encountered ‘trouble’ the cause of which is not known, but in the Fm1180 it states ‘The pilot lost control in Neo-Cumulus cloud (Icing?). However, it was deemed serious enough for the order to bale out was given. Three of the crew, the two air gunners and the navigator landed safely but the pilot and the Wireless operator were killed. It is not clear if they died of baling out too low, but the doomed Wellington carried on until striking the 1138ft ASL high point at Castleblythe.
Another confusing mention in the records is Mynydd Tre-Newydd is this where one of the dead crew landed?
Which of the hills, who are close to one another (separated by only a mile) plays its part in this fragment of history, wreckage has been found on the latter, with the stamp and shape peculiar to the Wellington.

Crew:
Sgt Francis Robert William Henderson 21yo 1457110 RAFVR. Pilot. Killed. 1
Son of Algernon Charles Francis and Rachel Mary Donaldson Henderson of Tonbridge.
Sgt F. W. R. Cumpstey RNZAF. Nav’. Safe.
Sgt Wright RAFVR. A/Gnr. Safe.
Sgt Gillies RAFVR A/Gnr. Safe.
Sgt Frank Henri Sherriff 1128034 RAFVR. W/Op. Killed. 2

Buried:
1 Tunbridge Wells Cemetery. Cons. Section 4A. Grave 148.
2 Heswall (St Peter) Churchyard West Extn’. Section 13. Row 8. Grave 4. (Family Grave).

Wreckage:
Some small fragments remain hidden in the short heather and unusually there is not an area of burnt aluminium preventing the growth of plants as is often seen on other crash sites of this type.
The majority was easily recovered.

Memorials:
CWGC Headstone.


Additional Information:
Castlebythe (Welsh: Cas-fuwch) is a village and parish in Pembrokeshire, Wales, on the southern slopes of the Preseli Hills, 10 km south-east of Fishguard. The northern part of the parish is in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.
The Welsh placename (shortened from Castell Fuwch) means "Cow castle” and is perhaps a mocking name for an abandoned fortification, inhabited only by cows. The English placename form is a corruption of the Welsh.

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft R1000-R9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1980)
2. Doylerush, E, 2008, Rocks in the Clouds: High Ground Aircraft Crashes in South Wales, p.109
3. https://www.cwgc.org/find/find-war-dead/
4. http://www.ggat.org.uk/timeline/pdf/Military%20Aircraft%20Crash%20Sites%20in%20Southeast%20Wales.pdf
5. https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/401016/details/mynydd-tre-newydd
6. https://getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/local/mynydd-tre-newydd-pembrokeshire-sir-benfro
www.rafcommands.com
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Local Knowledge.

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-May-2019 22:39	Dr. John Smith	Added
25-May-2019 11:41	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]