Operation: Training

Date: 02nd March 1943 (Tuesday)

Unit: No. 29 Elementary Flying Training School (50 Group)

Type: Tiger Moth II

Serial: T6641

Code: Not known

Base: RAF Clyffe Pypard, Wiltshire

Location: Roundway Hill, 2 miles north of Devizes, Wiltshire

Pilot (Inst): F/O. Alfred Gifford Moss 115395 RAFVR Age 26. Killed

Pilot (Inst): F/O. Angus Gerald Williams NZ/412296 RNZAF Age 20. Killed

(note: no details as to who was flying the aircraft at time of accident)

REASON FOR LOSS:

Something of a mystery surrounds this incident.

Without the knowledge of anyone else on the Station, seemingly with no authorisation, two instructors, F/O. WilIiams together with F/O. Moss, took-off in low cloud and poor visibility, apparently bound for Alton Bames. Other reports state that they were ferrying the Tiger Moth.

Both of these instructors had been with 29 EFTS for some time - Moss since the previous September and Williams for almost a year, and so their actions are difficult to understand.

At 09:20 hrs in low cloud and bad visibility the aircraft crashed into rising ground at Hill Covert on Roundway HilI near Devizes, six miles from their destination. Both men were trapped in the wreckage of the overturned aircraft and died in the ensuing fire. US Army personnel mounted guard at the crash site until the bodies were recovered. They were both buried local to the airfield on the 05th March.

Burial details:

F/O. Alfred Gifford Moss. Clyffe Pypard Churchyard (St. Peter). Son of Capt. Herbert James Moss and Hilda Moss, of Chelsea, London, England and husband of Pamela Ann Moss (née Berryman).

F/O. Angus Gerald Williams. Clyffe Pypard Churchyard (St. Peter). Son of Albert and Katherine Williams, of Ngaio, Wellington, New Zealand. A total of 808 flying hours logged with around 500 of these solo on the Tiger Moth.

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of these pilots with thanks to the research by Errol Martyn and his publications: “For Your Tomorrow Vols. 1-3”, Auckland Cenotaph, Weekly News of New Zealand, also to Duncan Curtis and his RAF Clyffe Pypard website. Other sources as quoted below:

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember them. - Laurence Binyon
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