LEST WE FORGET

David Whalley

 

‘Heavy’ Whalley tells the story of Avro Anson N9857 19 OTU RAF Kinloss, with a little help from Budgie

 

The RAF Mountain Rescue Service was formed during the war to rescue downed aircrew in the mountains. As the Kinloss Team trains throughout Scotland at times we come across old crash sites from this period. This winter the team was training at Ullapool and visited a crash site. The story of this aircraft and its crew is a reminder of those who gave so much.

            The crash site is a moving place and the photos taken give some atmosphere to a really sad tale.

            On the 13th April 1941 an Anson aircraft from RAF Kinloss on a cross country training flight crashed near Ben More in the North West Highlands at Inchanadampth above Ullapool. All six of the crew were killed. The crash site is the only site in Scotland where the crew are buried at the crash site. This crash happened in the days before a proper mountain rescue service existed. It became policy thereafter to recover bodies no matter how difficult or unpleasant this might be. The Commonwealth Graves Commission have placed a memorial to the crew beside the gateway to the local church at Inchnadamph. The inscription reads:

 

            Here are commemorated the crew of an aircraft crash on Ben More on the 13 Th. of April 1941, whose bodies rest where they fell

 

            Flying Officer JH Steyn DFC

            Pilot Officer WE Drew

            Sergeant J Emery

            Sergeant T R Kenny

            Sergeant CM Mitchell

            Sergeant HA Tompsett

 

            The aircraft was found by a local shepherd on the 26 May 1941,nearly 6 weeks after the aircraft went missing! Please remember all aircraft crash sites are war graves and should be treated as such.

            Information on high ground wrecks and wreckage is available from Midland Publication Limited (ISBN 185780 070 2, cost £ 6.95).

 

Hugh Budgen adds:

 

The Anson was on a cross-country training flight when it ran into a snowstorm over Stornoway. Turning at Cape Wrath they tried to climb above the bad weather but a last faint morse message from the aircraft was picked up:

“Icing up … lost power on port engine …losing height … descending through 3,000 feet.”

The Anson crashed on Ben More Assynt (map reference 15/294232) on 13 April 1941. It is thought that the pilot, navigator and wireless operator were killed in the crash and that the two trainees and the instructor survived only to die of hypothermia later; they were not found until 26 May 1941 by a shepherd. Owing to the difficulty in bringing the bodies down 2,200 feet and about a five-mile walk from Inchnadamph the crew were buried and a rock cairn was placed over them. (This, of course, was before the days of mountain rescue teams.) Various parts of the wreckage such as the turret were also collected and put at the site.

In June 1985, air cadets from No. 2489 (Bridge of Don) Squadron under the command of Flight Lieutenant Niall Aslen visited the site to refurbish the grave and rebuild the cairn, erect a nine-foot cross and have it dedicated by the Rev. Fred Hurst of the Church of Scotland at Lochinver. The plaque that was also on the cairn with the names of the crew was cleaned up and polished. There is also a plaque to their memory at the gateway of Inchnadamph church.

They were:

Pilot:   42275 FO James Henry Steyn DFC (23), from South Africa (he received the DFC after a tour with No. 10 Squadron at Leeming)

            Observer:        45356 PO William Edwin Drew (28), from Barrow-in-Furness

            W/op:              551620 FS Thomas Brendan Kenny (20), from Barnsley

            W/op.A/G:      976995 Sgt Jack Emery (20), from Trowbridge

            Observer u/t:   992122 Sgt Charles McPerson Mitchell (31), from Aberdeen

            W/Op.A/G u/t:931417 Sgt Harold Arthur Tompsett (20), from Croydon.