Wellington BJ697
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25th September 1942.
Wellington bomber BJ697 (12 OTU) crashed on Fan Hir in the Brecon Beacons after flying off course while on a cross crountry navigation exercise from RAF Chipping Warden. The aircraft caught fire and all that remains now are a few fragments of mostly molten metal, with a small cairn built beside the debris pool.
The crew survived the impact but the pilot Flight Sergeant Kenneth Suckling Hardwick Bird died of his injuries a few days later on September 29th 1942. Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of his death. He was 22 years old.
The other crew members survived but some were injured. They were Sergeants Barr, Fairweather, Head and Troughbridge. Some reports state that Sgt Head was unhurt in the crash and was able to help with the rescue of his mates.
Re; Discrepancies.
There are some discrepancies in the reports of this crash; some give the date as 26th September rather than 25th. This may be because it was a night time exercise, so the Wellington may have taken off on the 25th but crashed on the 26th. Also other reports exclude Sgt Troughbridge from the crew list.
It is often the case that when documenting these events one primary source is used, so if a mistake was made then it is replicated elsewhere.
In this then, W R Chorley (RAF Bomber Command Losses, Volume 7, 2002) excludes Sgt Troughbridge from the crew list and gives the date as 26 September 1942, while more local sources (e.g Brecon Beacons National Park booklet Aircraft Crash Sites,1996) says Sgt Toughbridge was on board and that the date of the crash was the day before.
The majority of resources available go with the latter and I have gone with them.
The history you give with these are fantastic..I can honestly say that I never had a great interest in reading about the wars, always got lots of other history to read about – However, these are so informative and the photographs are wonderful..can’t help taking an interest.
Another loss in different but still spectacular scenery – a question … are there any crashes of this type in low lying fields or edge of town?
a great place for a tribute for them ian , great views
Well captured historic scene..
Well researched Ian ! The best site of that trip for me …the poignancy of this site is well captured here !
Seen in Military Airplane Crash Sites
Thank you for sharing
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i like the cairn and the scene beyond. looks very peaceful. molten metal – yr not kidding! must have been some fire and i’m stoked to hear at least, the crew made it out of the aircraft before that took hold. very poignant to add the young fellas birthday, dying at 22, so young. the square crop is something different and the black frame adds a little extra funeral feel.
Seen in Military Airplane Crash Sites
Thank you for sharing
o aye, that looks fancy –
KEEPING HISTORY ALIVE
thankyou for sharing with
MILITARY AIRPLANE CRASH SITES
Touching tribute, Ian. Interesting to think about the research process that goes into these and sorting out the tangle of differing accounts
It was a fortunate occurrence that at least four members of the crew survived the crash and was able to get out of the burning wreck…
Very good photo, Ian.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/25305713@N04] Thanks Wilf, one of the reasons I stick with Flickr rather than use a blog is that they are seen by people who arent specifically looking for them but people such as yourself who stumble across them. Thanks for your comment, means a lot.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/cachelog] Hi Bryan, good question. The answer is yes, there are loads of crash sites, but those that are easy to get to had the debris removed at the time. What wasn’t collected by the salvage teams was collected by kids. And anything else is built over or ploughed over. Occasionally you will find fragments in low lying areas if you know where to look. But as I say, if you live in the UK, you are never far from a crash site, they came down in their thousands during WWII.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/29730035@N04] [http://www.flickr.com/photos/nondesigner] [http://www.flickr.com/photos/pasujoba44] Thanks guys. Yeah me too Paul.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/angwickham] Ang. Thank you x 3!
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/stopherjones] Cheers Chris, I try to present a summary of what various resouorces say about the crash. Over time these discrepancies are bound to occur.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/bazylek] Thanks Robin, yeah they were lucky. It is not the norm.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/maycontaintracesofnuts] THREE!
[and i wasn’t even tryin’]!
Great capture and detail Ian : )
Hello Ian,
My thanks for the fine picture of the crash site, and a couple of the
additional research details, two of which are new to me.
The pilot’s name, as originally given by http://www.cwgc.org , has now
been corrected on the Commission’s site.
Its a small detail, but it may have mattered to Sergeant Bird because it
was through the Suckling family that he was second cousin six times
removed to a military casualty of greater fame: Horatio Nelson.
Regards,
RAC
Thanks Richard. I have amended the spelling from Sockling to Suckling. Interesting detail re; Nelson, thank you for adding that!
Ian
Ian,
I discovered today that KSH Bird had a second cousin once removed,
Maurice Nelson Baron, whose Sopwith was shot down over France in
1917 during his first sortie –
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=86911
Our genes are cursed 🙁
Regards
RAC
Great to see pictures of this site, thanks. My grandfather was on BJ697. Hopefully one day I will make it there.