Date:	Thursday 7 November 1946
Time:	10:32 LT
Type:	Avro Anson C Mk XIX
Owner/operator:	2 Group CS RAF
Registration:	TX175
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 7
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	De Wendel Colliery, Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, BZG, West Germany -   Germany
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Passenger
Departure airport:	RAF Gutersloh, West Germany
Destination airport:	RAF Bovingdon, Hertfordshire

Narrative:
Anson TX175: Written off (destroyed) 8-11-46 while being operated by 2 Group Communications Squadron, when it collided with a 420-foot chimney whilst low flying (in bad weather) at De Wendel Colliery, 5 miles south west of Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia in the British-occupied Zone of West Germany.

The Anson took off from RAF Gutersloh in West Germany, bound for the UK (RAF Bovingdon, Hertfordshire) via Dortmund, West Germany, and was low flying in conditions of poor visibility. The aircraft collided with a chimney at the De Wendel Colliery, at approx. 80 metre agl, swung to starboard, and then 'rebounded' and crashed into a second chimney at the colliery, disintegrated and dived into the ground.

At the time of this incident, chimneys were not marked on maps, nor were they illuminated with warning lights. In addition to the poor visibility/fog at the time, the chimneys generated lots of steam which made visibility even worse!

All seven persons (two crew plus five passengers) on board were killed.
Crew:
F/Lt (NZ415258) Maxwell Roy HARWOOD (pilot) RNZAF: killed
F/O (167805) Jack Albert BUTLER (nav.) RAFVR: killed
Passengers:
Cpl Alan MacDonald (616420) RAF: killed
F/O Charles King ALLAN (203421) RAFVR: killed
F/Sgt George William Harry BARKHAM (563521) RAF: killed
F/O Arthur Stanley PINNION (144914) RAFVR: killed
W/Cdr Noel Joseph MOWAT DSO (NZ2404) RNZAF: killed
R.I.P.

All the fatalities were interred together in the same place - Munster Heath War Cemetery, Munster, West Germany. For the MacDonald family, the accident was a double tragedy: Corporal Alan MacDonald's wife, Leading Wren (53088) Catherine Mary MacDonald (WRNS VR) had been killed on active service just five months before on 2nd July 1946.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.242
3. Air Britain Aeromilitaria 1979 p104: https://air-britain.com/pdfs/aeromilitaria/Aeromilitaria_1979.pdf
4. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999, (James J Halley, Air Britain,1985)
5. The Indian Express 9 November 1946, p4
6. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?1713-RAF-Casualty
7. https://aircrewremembered.com/harwood-maxwell-roy.html
8. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1475559/maxwell-roy-harwood/
9. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1475414/jack-albert-butler/
10. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1475656/allan-macdonald/
11. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1475341/charles-king-allan/
12. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1475357/george-william-harry-barkham/
13. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1475748/arthur-stanley-pinnion/
14. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1475712/noel-joseph-mowat/
15. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18430198/maxwell-roy-harwood

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Sep-2008 01:00	ASN archive	Added
16-Apr-2012 20:51	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Source, Narrative]
30-Nov-2012 04:49	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
30-Nov-2012 04:56	nemcupavel@	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
17-Jan-2016 07:31	JIXN	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator]
23-Jan-2019 14:15	TB	Updated [Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]
23-Jan-2019 14:16	TB	Updated [Time]
27-May-2023 08:10	Nepa	Updated [[Time]]
27-May-2023 11:08	Dr. John Smith	Updated [[[Time]]]