Operation: Training Exercise
Date: 21st September 1944 (Thursday)
Unit: No. No. 3 Pilot Advanced Flying Unit (PAFU)
Type: Airspeed Oxford I
Serial: DF516
Code: Not known
Base: Under research
Location: Flisteridge Wood, Laurel Farm, Hankerton, Wiltshire
Pilot: F/O. Robert James Newman J/36366 RCAF Age 22. Killed
Pilot U/T: Fl/Sgt. Ronald Jack Brown AUS/437389 RAAF Age 19. Killed
REASON FOR LOSS:
During training carrying out instructions on stalling, steep turns and low flying (instructed not to be below 250 ft) the aircraft hit a tree some 20 ft higher than others and located on a ridge within the woods. Both crew killed when the Oxford flipped on its back and crashed.
Colin Cummins in his publication ‘Price Of Peace’ (A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses Between VE-Day and End of 1945 - ISBN-13: 978-0952661955 - Nimbus Publishers) described that the accident loss card had been incorrectly dated as September 1945.
Burial details:
F/O. Robert James Newman. Brookwood Military Cemetery. Grave: 55. C. 9. Son of James and Mary Newman, of St. Lambert, Province of Quebec, Canada.
Pilot U/T: Fl/Sgt. Ronald Jack Brown. Haycombe Cemetery (Bath). Plot 51. Sec. H. Row V. Grave 238. Son of Charles John and Olive Elizabeth Brown, of Seaton Park, South Australia.
Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this crew with thanks to sources indicated below:
