AR banner
Search Tips Advanced Search
Back to Top

Info LogoAdd to or correct this story with a few clicks.
Archive Report: Allied Forces

Compiled from official National Archive and Service sources, contemporary press reports, personal logbooks, diaries and correspondence, reference books, other sources, and interviews.
Further data available at Allied Losses & Incidents database
.
We seek additional information and photographs. Please contact us via the Helpdesk.
NOTE March 2021: owing to a configuration error on our server, some pages are missing images. We are restoring these pages as fast as possible. Contact us via Helpdesk if you need to see images which we have not yet restored.
412 squadron crest
11.12.1941 No. 412 Squadron Spitfire Vb AD291 VZ-H P/O. Magee

Operation: Training formation practice.

Date: 11th December 1941

Unit: No. 412 Squadron (Canadian)

Type: Spitfire VB

Serial: AD291

Code: VZ-H

Location: Roxholme Hall, Sleaford, Lincolnshire

Pilot: P/O. John Gillespie Magee J/5823 RCAF Age 19. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the way back to RAF Wellingore, P/O. Magee’s Spitfire came out of the mist at about 400 feet and collided in mid-air with an RAF Cranwell based, Oxford trainer.


A local farmer witnessed the crash saying that the Fighter pilot struggled to open his canopy and then standing up he jumped from his aircraft but his parachute had insufficient time to fully deploy and he crashed to the ground being killed on impact.

Both aircraft crashed near to Roxholme Hall just outside Seaford.


On 13th December Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee was buried with full military honours at Scopwick cemetery where some 70 other Commonwealth war veterans would come to rest following military service.


Back at base that evening the station commander ordered all pilots to attend a lecture on flight safety and watch a film entitled 'Caution in flying'.

His poem (shown right) is also written in our Poetry section.


Left: Grave at Scopwick Church.

Burial Details:

P/O. John Gillespie Magee. Scopwick Church Burial Ground. Row. 3. Grave 33. Son of John Gillespie Magee and Faith Backhouse Magee, of Washington, D.C., USA.

With thanks to the following: The C.W.G.C. 'Fighter Command Losses' - Norman Franks.

His gravestone reads some words from his now famous poem:

'Oh, I have slipped

the surly bonds of earth

put out my hand

and touched the face of God'.

Acknowledgements: Sources used by us in compiling Archive Reports include: Bill Chorley - 'Bomber Command Losses Vols. 1-9, plus ongoing revisions', Dr. Theo E.W. Boiten and Mr. Roderick J. Mackenzie - 'Nightfighter War Diaries Vols. 1 and 2', Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt - 'Bomber Command War Diaries', Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tom Kracker - Kracker Luftwaffe Archives, Michel Beckers, Major Fred Paradie (RCAF) and MWO François Dutil (RCAF) - Paradie Archive (on this site), Jean Schadskaje, Major Jack O'Connor USAF (Retd.), Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, Waldemar Wójcik and Józef Zieliński - 'Ku Czci Połeglyçh Lotnikow 1939-1945', Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses', Aircrew Remembered Databases and our own archives. We are grateful for the support and encouragement of CWGC, UK Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial, Australian National Archives, New Zealand National Archives, UK National Archives and Fold3 and countless dedicated friends and researchers across the world.
Click any image to enlarge it

Click to add your info via ticket on Helpdesk •Click to let us know via ticket on Helpdesk• Click to buy research books from Amazon •Click to explore the entire site
If you would like to comment on this page, please do so via our Helpdesk. Use the Submit a Ticket option to send your comments. After review, our Editors will publish your comment below with your first name, but not your email address.

A word from the Editor: your contribution is important. We welcome your comments and information. Thanks in advance.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember them. - Laurence Binyon
All site material (except as noted elsewhere) is owned or managed by Aircrew Remembered and should not be used without prior permission.
© Aircrew Remembered 2012 - 2021 Last Modified: 13 March 2021, 22:06

Monitor Additions/Changes?Click to be informed of changes to this page. Create account for first monitor only, thereafter very fast. Click to close without creating monitor