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| Date: | Friday 1 January 1943 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Avro Anson |
| Owner/operator: | 1 (O) AFU RAF |
| Registration: | AX145 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Geale Farm, near Skiddaw, Cumberland, England -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | RAF Wigtown, Scotland |
During the evening of 1 January 1943 the Anson I AX145 of 1 (Observer) Advanced Flying Unit RAF and at least one other took off from Wigtown airfield to undertake night navigation training flights. The last wireless communication with the crew of the Anson AX145 was received at 1900hrs and after this time nothing from the aircraft was heard. When this aircraft failed to return to Wigtown following the training exercise a search was begun over land by other aircraft and a sea search was carried out over the intended route but nothing was found. In the AM Form 765c filled for this aircraft it was assumed the aircraft had crashed before 2210hrs but it is not yet known why this precise time was stated. This form is dated 5th January 1943 and on that date nothing was known of where the aircraft had crashed. It was probably assumed that the aircraft had crashed at sea and both the aircraft and crew were initially recorded simply as missing. That probably ended the formal search and the families were notified to the effect that all were missing, believed killed.
What actually occurred is not known, however it is easy to speculate that the aircraft drifted too far east in a snow storm and was simply not flying high enough when it crashed or that the aircraft had suffered the effects of icing conditions on the surface of the aircraft and lost height before hitting the ground. The aircraft had flown into a steep grassy fellside of Frozen Fell in the Uldale Fells area to the north of Keswick and then almost certainly the wreckage then fell down into an offshoot of Frozenfell Gill and was virtually hidden. Even today this part of the Lake District is one of the lesser visited parts of the National Park and combined with it being winter there would be little chance of anyone coming across the wrecked aircraft by chance. There was also probably less of a chance of anyone even being up in these fells at this time of year during the war and it may also have been quickly covered over with snow. Another aircraft also taking part in the same training exercise would crash in the High Pike area of the Caldbeck Fells on the same night with one of the crew of Anson W2629 being killed and others sustaining varying degrees of injury.
It was not until 29 January 1943 when members of the Army Driving and Maintainance School based at Portinscale on exercise in the Skiddaw area noticed pieces of yellow painted wood floating down stream and notified an RAF working party of 83 MU were at the crash site of Hurricane AF959 (which was also not found for a week). The senior officer at the time at the Hurricane crash site formed a search party and located the wreckage of what was then identified to be Anson AX145 on Frozen Fell. The bodies of all five airmen were recovered and funerals of three of the men were held at Silloth on 2 February 1943. The party that visited the site reported that three of the crew may have survived the initial crash but died through exposure as well as their injuries though their deaths are all recorded as being on 1 January 1943. The crash site appears to have been very well cleared at the time and very little remains today to mark the site.
Crew (all killed)
Plt Off William Basil Cheale Thompson RCAF (pilot, J/16171), aged 21, of Moosomin, Saskatchewan, Canada. Buried Causewayhead Cemetery, Silloth, Cumbria.
Plt Off Bruce Oswald Bown RAAF (wireless operator/air gunner, 413950), aged 30, of Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia. Buried Causewayhead Cemetery, Silloth, Cumbria.
Sgt George David Singleton RAFVR (wireless operator/air gunner, 1257904), aged 21, of Hampton Hill, Middlesex. Buried Hampton Hill Churchyard, Middlesex.
Sgt Edwin Omer Knight RAAF (navigator, 414574), aged 21, of Oxley, Queensland, Australia. Buried Causewayhead Cemetery, Silloth, Cumbria.
Plt Off William Burt RAFVR (navigator under training, 129765), aged 21, of Edinburgh, Scotland. Buried Annan Cemetery, Dumfriesshire.
Sources:
https://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/lakes/ax145.html
https://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/lakes/lakedistrict.html
https://caspir.warplane.com/pdoc/pn/600020052/
https://forum.rafcommands.com/forum/unaccounted-airmen-and-airwomen-project/1943/7477-430101-unaccounted-airmen-1-1-1943?7638-430101-Unaccounted-airmen-1-1-1943
https://mapcarta.com/N5354294388
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 27-Sep-2008 01:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 25-Nov-2010 02:55 | penguin832 | Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative, ] |
| 29-Nov-2010 04:07 | Anon. | Updated [Operator, Source, ] |
| 03-Jan-2012 05:36 | Uli Elch | Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 19-Jan-2012 14:19 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, ] |
| 11-Apr-2012 07:28 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Phase, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 11-Apr-2012 07:32 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, ] |
| 11-Apr-2012 07:36 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location, Narrative, ] |
| 04-Jun-2015 07:47 | Wilbur | Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Narrative, ] |
| 01-Jun-2024 20:50 | Nepa | Updated [Time, Location, Narrative, Operator, ] |
| 20-Aug-2024 14:35 | Laurent Rizzotti | Updated [Time, Nature, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ] |
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