Operation: Training

Date: 02nd January 1945 (Tuesday)

Unit: No. 10 Air Gunners School

Type: Anson I

Serial: LT741

Code: -

Base: RAF Walney, Barrow-in-Furness

Location: Black Combe Screes, Yorkshire

Pilot: Fl/Sgt. Arthur James Wood 1318079 RAFVR Age 29. Killed

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Sgt. Kenneth David Jenkins 1836729 RAFVR Age 19. Killed

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Sgt. James Leonard Turner 1823803 RAFVR Age 19. Killed

Air/Gnr: W/O. Thomas William Johnson DFM 1526829 RAFVR Age 22. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

On a air gunner training exercise they encountered severe weather and failed to return to base.

Despite air and sea searches no trace could be found.

It was some eight days later when the wreckage was discovered at Black Combe Screes. Records show that one crew member survived the accident with burns and serious leg injuries. His body was discovered some 300 yards from the main wreckage and is thought to have died from exposure.

As was the practice for aircrew killed in Great Britain, relatives could either claim the bodies to be buried at their home towns or a cemetery close to the base. The crew were all buried in their home towns.

Above: Richard Allenby visited the crash site in October 2011, remains of a toggle switch, artificial horizon instrument face (courtesy Richard Allenby - used with permission, see credits)

Fl/Sgt. Arthur James Wood. Manor Road Cemetery, Scarborough. Sec. W. (Border). Grave 69. Son of Arthur and Anne Mary Wood, of Scarborough, Yorkshire, England. Attended Scarborough High School for Boys and had then joined the Metropolitan Police Force. He joined the RAFVR around 1941 and trained as a pilot and may well have flown operationally before posting to No.10 Air Gunnery School as one of their staff pilots. His parents owned the Ramshill Hotel in Scarborough at the time of their son's death. Grave inscription: 'In Memory Of Our Beloved Son Killed On Active Service R.I.P'.

Sgt. Kenneth David Jenkins. Whitchurch Churchyard (St. Mary), Glamorganshire. NW Part. Son of David Kenneth and Frances Jenkins, of Whitchurch, Glamorganshire, Wales. Grave inscription: 'I Died For People And Not For Things; I Died For The World And Not For Kings'.

W/O. Thomas William Johnson DFM. Liverpool Cemetery (Allerton). Sec. 33. C. of E. Grave 682. Gained his DFM for service with 9 Squadron, Gazetted on 17th August 1943. Son of Thomas William and Janet Johnson, of Liverpool, England. Grave Inscription: 'From Sky To Earth For Liberty I Fell, I Fought, I Won My Wings Again, Farewell'.

Researched for Walter Bunker (relative of the pilot) and dedicated to relatives of this crew with thanks to Richard Allenby of the Aircraft Accidents in Yorkshire 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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