Date:	Thursday 14 April 1955
Time:	day
Type:	Bristol Beaufighter TT Mk 10
Owner/operator:	5 CAACU RAF
Registration:	RD783
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Bromborough Golf Course, Raby Hall Road, Birkenhead, Wirral, Cheshire. -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Llanbedr, Llanbedr, Gwynedd
Destination airport:	RAF Hooton Park, Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Beaufighter RD783: Written off (damaged beyond repair) 14/04/1955 when force landed on the Golf course at Bromborough Golf Course, Raby Hall Road, Birkenhead, Wirral, Cheshire. The aircraft yawed on final approach to RAF Hooton Park, and made a wheels up landing on the Golf Course, which is 3 miles WNW of Hooton Park.
Crew:
F/Lt (55436) Dorrien Alfred READ (pilot) RAFVR - not injured.

The incident was described by the official history of the Bromborough Golf Club as follows:

"After almost 50 years of change and development, including the interruption to golfing activities of the two World Wars, the early post War years in the 1950's were a time of stability and the members could get on with their primary aim of playing and enjoying their golf at Bromborough. However, the tranquillity of the Golf Course was briefly disturbed by one unfortunate event. This occurred on the 14th April 1955 when an R.A.F. Bristol Beaufighter aircraft based at Llanbedr, in Wales, being used as a target-towing aircraft, made an emergency belly landing on the course. At the time of the emergency, when it experienced the failure of one of its two engines, the aircraft was on its final approach for landing at Hooton Aerodrome.

Hooton Aerodrome was laid out in what had formerly been Hooton Park; the Vauxhall car factory now mostly occupies the site of the aerodrome. The pilot escaped injury and the aircraft was not badly damaged but petrol was leaking from one of the wings. This was apparently put to good use by several locals who collected some of the petrol for use in their cars!"

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.170 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.128
3. https://www.bromboroughgolfclub.org.uk/about/history/
4. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39520/supplement/2170/data.pdf

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
11-May-2020 18:11	Dr. John Smith	Added
11-May-2020 18:12	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
11-May-2020 20:19	Boile A.	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Operator]
08-May-2021 16:19	MiG17	Updated [Narrative, Operator]