Operation: Delivery flight

Date: 22nd January 1944 (Saturday)

Unit No: 3 Overseas Aircraft Delivery Unit (3 OADU)

Type: Wellington XIII

Serial: JA268

Code: Unknown

Base: RAF Hurn, Dorset

Location: Off the coast of Brittany, France

Pilot: Flt Sgt. David Brian Larkins 409554 RAAF Age 21. Missing

Navigator: WO. Thomas Joseph Mills 1250065 RAFVR Age 24. Missing

WOp/Air Gnr: Sgt. Basil ‘Mick’ Stamper 1044457 RAFVR Age 23. Missing

REASON FOR LOSS:

The following is based upon an extract from the Court of Inquiry into the accident to Wellington JA268.

The conclusion reached was that:

On the 22nd January 1944, Fortress 9205, Captain Fg Off. Hillcoat, (insert Link) took-off from RAF Portreath at 01:30 hrs GMT on a flight to Gibraltar via the Scilly Isles and Cape Finesterre. At 03:07 hrs GMT in DR position, 47° 42' N, 07° 29' W this aircraft, while flying in cloud at 5000 ft, came into collision with another aircraft which could not be identified. The other aircraft was seen to disappear behind the starboard wing of the Fortress, apparently out of control. Being damaged, the Fortress returned to the UK and made a successful landing at Predannack, where a piece of wreckage which was identified as the trimming tab of the rudder of a Wellington, coloured white, was found wrapped round the leading edge of the port wing.

Note: 47° 42' N, 07° 29' W is about 328 miles SW of Hurn and 146 miles WSW of Brest, Finistère department, Brittany, France.

On the same morning at 00:07 hrs GMT Wellington JA268, Captain Flt Sgt. Larkins took-off from RAF Hurn on a flight to Rabat Sale, also via Scilly Isles and Cape Finisterre. This aircraft was not heard of at all after take off, and did not arrive at its destination.

From the following three points there appears to be no doubt that the aircraft which was in collision with Fortress 9205 was Wellington JA268:

The Wellington rudder trimming tab found on the Fortress was white, and Wellington JA268 is known to have been camouflaged white;

Wellington JA268 was the only aircraft of this type and colour reported missing in the area during that period;

The two aircraft were on the same route from the Scillies to Cape Finesterre and although according to the Flight Plan and the time of take-off of the Wellington, this aircraft should have been approximately 40 miles ahead of the DR position of the accident, this distance could easily have been compensated for by the Aircraft circling base before setting course and/or deviating from its course between Hurn and the Scillies.

It is considered that the cause of the accident was that the two aircraft were flying on the same track at same height in cloud and that the Fortress travelling at a higher speed overtook the Wellington, striking it from the rear.

From examination of the Fortress it appears that the rudder of the Wellington was struck first by the port propellors of the Fortress, the trimming tab being cut off cleanly and becoming wedged on the leading edge of the Fortress between the port engines. The impact would have caused the Fortress to swing to port and the Wellington to starboard, so that the forward end of the Wellington passed under the starboard side of the Fortress, scraping the underside of the nose, and damaging the starboard side of the nose and the two starboard propellors. This would have swung the fortress then round to starboard into the spiral described by the Captain.

All efforts to trace the aircraft and crew proved to be unsuccessful and as a result the crew were posted as missing.

Above: Courtesy of The Sun News Pictorial, 23rd December 1944

Burial details:

Above: The Runnymede Memorial (Courtesy of the CWGC)

Flt Sgt. David Brian Larkins. Runnymede Memorial, Panel 261. Born on the 11th February 1922 in Moe, City of Latrobe, Victoria. Son of Brian Lockwood and Lucie Eileen (née Jones) Larkins of Gardenvale, Victoria, Australia.

WO. Thomas Joseph Mills. Runnymede Memorial, Panel 214. Born on the 23rd December 1920 in Chadwell St. Mary, Essex. Son of Thomas Wingrove and Alice Amelia (née Robins) Mills of Tilbury, Essex, England.

Sgt. Basil ‘Mick’ Stamper. Runnymede Memorial, Panel 238. Born on the 21st November 1921 in Stockton-on-Tees, Co. Durham. Son of Harold and Hannah Mary (née Sharp) Stamper of Stockton-on-Tees, Co. Durham, England.

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the crew and their families (Jul 2026).

Other sources listed below:

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