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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.
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Royal Air Force Crest
21.09.1944 No. 3 PAFU Airspeed Oxford I DF516 F/O. Robert J. Newman

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:

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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 Captain 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', Andrew Mielnik: Archiwum - Polish Air Force Archive (on this site), Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Polish graves: https://niebieskaeskadra.pl/, PoW Museum Żagań, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses', Stan D. Bishop, John A. Hey MBE, Gerrie Franken and Maco Cillessen - Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, Vols 1-6, Dr. Theo E.W. Boiton - Nachtjagd Combat Archives, Vols 1-13. 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.
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