Operation: Training Flight

Date: 21st October 1942 (Wednesday)

Unit: No. 29 Squadron (motto: Impiger et Acer - 'Energetic and keen')

Type: Beaufighter IVF

Serial: V8229

Code: RO-?

Base: RAF West Malling, Kent

Location: West Winchelsea, Sussex

Pilot: Sgt. Harold Leonard Kerr Wright 1196436 RAFVR Age 20. Killed

Obs: Sgt. Alfred Harold Akester 1129335 RAFVR Age 28. Killed

Researched by Michael Walpole for Aircrew Remembered

REASON FOR LOSS:

Taking off at 14:35 on a training flight.

Hit by AA fire, the very day that an officer from AA Command came to lecture 29 Squadron on co-operation with the guns.

Hit just 35 minutes into the flight at 15:10 hrs. caught fire and crashed one mile west of Winchelsea, with the loss of Sgt Harold Wright and his navigator Sgt Alfred Akester.

The squadron Operations Record Book states: 'Lt Brown from Anti-Aircraft Command lectured to the aircrews today. By a strange and sad coincidence a new pilot (Sgt Wright) was shot down and killed by Ack Ack fire whilst on a sector reconnaissance'.

An investigation into the accident put the loss down to an 'unfortunate error in recognition by the AA gunners.' Fresh attention drawn to pilots and crews where rules for opening fire are unrestricted.'

Three months later ON Sunday 17th January 1943 a similar event took place, when another Beaufighter was hit by an AA. battery at Rye at about 21:00 hrs.
Scrambled from RAF Ford, West Sussex at 20.10 hrsThe crew baled out and were uninjured. 141 Squadron Beaufighter V8264 flown by Fl/Lt. William Renwick Cook MiD NZ/411375 RNZAF. Navigator Fl/Sgt. Leonard William Warner 747687 RAFVR. They landed safely near Lydd at 21:50 hrs. Both crew survived the war.

Fl/Lt. Cook (shown left) born on the 08th October 1918 in Timaru, Canterbury, New Zealand also served in 88 squadron (died on the 17th Apr 2004, aged 85) Husband of Shirley Elisabeth Cook (née Arthur - died on the 13th November 1976, age just 50)

Burial details:

Sgt. Harold Leonard Kerr Wright. Water Orton Churchyard (Ss. Peter And Paul). South of church in a private grave. Born on the 01st March 1922 at Rugby Borough, Warwickshire. Son of Leonard and Ellen Gertrude Wright, of Water Orton, Warwickshire in the West Midlands, England

Sgt. Alfred Harold Akester. Driffield Cemetery. Grave 1079. Born in 1914 in Driffield, Yorkshire. Educated at Bridlington School. Employed in the government offices at Hull.Son of Alfred Akester (died 09th September 1935549) and of Elizabeth Akester (nee Raylor - died 1965, age 83), of Driffield Husband of Eileen Akester, (née Carroll) of Erdington, Birmingham, England. Epitaph: 'He Lives In Memory's New Day. H.A.'

Above: Water Orton (courtesy Michael Walpole)

Above and below: Crew graves (courtesy Michael Walpole)

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this crew with thanks to tMichel Walpole, National Archive Kew AIR 27-342-19/20, Aviation deaths worldwide. Aviation Safety Network

Other sources as quoted below:

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