ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 239910
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| Date: | Saturday 4 September 1943 |
| Time: | 02:26 LT |
| Type: |  Avro Lancaster Mk III |
| Owner/operator: | 460 Sqn RAAF |
| Registration: | W4988 |
| MSN: | AR-Q |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 7 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Laröd, municipality of Helsingborg, Skåne län -
 Sweden
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Binbrook, Lincolnshire |
Takeoff at 19:57 hrs local time for an operation against Berlin.
While over Berlin the aircraft was caught by several searchlights and attacked by German night fighters and the port outer engine caught fire but Pilot F/O Francis Archibald Randall RAAF managed to get away and by stopping the engine minimising the fire. Shortly after W4988 was caught in the light of flares dropped by the fighters and once again attacked. This time the starboard outer engine caught fire and a fire started in the fuselage just aft of the mid-upper turret. The burning engine was stopped and the fire died. During the combat the Bomb aimer P/O Lindsay Grafton Greenaway RAAF had left the Lancaster in parachute over Berlin. With only two good engines Randall asked navigator F/S Norman James Conway RAAF for a course to take them across Denmark on the return flight. He then changed his mind and asked for a course for Sweden. When they sighted the east coast of Sjælland and could see the lights in Sweden the fire in the starboard engine started again and Randall ordered the crew to bale out. The first to leave the Lancaster was Flt. Engr. Sgt Arthur Hilton Johns, Wop Sgt Allen John O`Brian RAAF and Rear Gunner F/S Harry Knight Ward RCAF. Then navigator F/S Conway left.
Mid-upper gunner Sgt Herbert Bell parachute had been laying in the fuselage and had been damaged by bullets from the nightfighter. Randall told Bell to unpack it to see that it was not too badly damaged. Bell then jumped with the unpacked parachute folded in front of his chest. When the parachute unfolded the lines tangled round his neck and injured him. Randall left the plane as the last person.
Conway jumped 5th and is believed to have landed in the sea off Sjælland and to have drowned. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
Sources:
http://www.flensted.eu.com/19430091.shtml
Nachtjagd Combat Archive 1943 part two
Google Maps
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 13-Aug-2020 08:57 | TigerTimon | Added |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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