Rob's quest to pinpoint wartime tragedies
A Telford historian who has drawn up huge databases cataloguing wartime Bomber Command losses is seeking help from Shropshire Star readers with information about two tragic crashes in the county.
Rob Davis has been sharing his findings with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and has passed on his research information relating to thousands of Bomber Command members. The commission has now asked if he could research RAF officer casualties who were not in Bomber Command – some 11,000 more names.
"I've got as far as the middle of the gs and am trying to do 100 a day. Phew – it's a long job, but I will get it done," said Rob.
Shropshire saw literally hundreds of air accidents during the war, many of them fatal, but currently Rob is focussing on trying to pinpoint the exact locations of one crash near Wem, and another near Clun, and is hoping people with local knowledge will come forward.
He has searched on the ground to try to find evidence of the site of an accident involving a Whitley bomber on the night of May 2 to 3, 1943, without success.
The aircraft, based at RAF Sleap, near Wem, is recorded as having been on a night navigation exercise. In returning to Sleap to land, the 20-year-old pilot overshot the runway, and went around again to make another attempt. However, he overshot a second time and opened up the throttles to go around yet again, but hit some trees near the airfield at 4.20am.
The aircraft burst into flames and all five crew members died.
"I can't see any ground discolouration in the area suggesting where such a crash might have happened," said Rob.
The second crash into which he is delving deeper involved a Wellington bomber which was caught up in a thunderstorm on the afternoon of September 13, 1943, and flew into high ground near Clun.
The aircraft was based at RAF Chipping Warden and was on a training flight. All eight on board – an unusually high number, as the aircraft was carrying three extra crew passing on their experience to the trainee crew – were killed.
A book by Shropshire air crashes historian Tom Thorne gives the location of that crash as Burrow Hill, near Aston-on-Clun, and says that as the plane flew over Lydbury North at low level a vivid flash was seen to strike the aircraft, which afterwards was seen to be on fire.
Rob said: "I am guessing that this impact was at the hillside near Woodside, but I welcome any amplifying information. Has any debris been found?"
Anyone with information can contact Rob at rob.davis@blueyonder.co.uk
