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4.
Lake Vyrnwy
Wellington
At about 10.50
pm on May l4th 1943, Wellington Mk.III, serial X3785, took off from 27 OTU, Lichfield,
for a night cross-country navigation exercise. The flight was
to be from Lichfield to Rhyl, Isle of Man, Anglesey,
Fishguard, Llangollen, Cannock Chase bombing range and
return to Lichfield, one of the unit's standard training
routes.
The
pilot was FO. J W Robb of
Glasgow, with over three hundred hours, twenty- nine on Wellingtons, ten
of which were at night. The observer was Flying Officer TA Ley from
Australia. The pupil navigator was PO. G H 'Billy' Cone of Suffolk.
Sergeant A W Sayers from Kent was the air bomber. The WO/AG was Sgt G S
Lee from Weston-Super-Mare and AG Sgt E L Clarke of Nottingham.
3 1/2 hours into the flight,
on the Fishguard to Llangollen leg, an engine caught
fire. The wireless operator tried to transmit a signal to
Lichfield, but seconds later the Wellington hit a small
hill near Lake Vyrnwy and exploded, killing all on board. Just before the
crash, the aircraft was heard to be in trouble by local
people, with one engine misfiring before bursting into
flames. The Wellington dived steeply into the ground at
2.35am on May 15th.
Some men of the
local Home Guard were the first at the scene but all that could
be done was to remove the bodies and the personal
belongings. None of the
crew were wearing parachutes & it seems
that they had been unable to reach them in time to bail
out. On the other hand, Flying Officer Robb may have been
trying to ditch the stricken aircraft, as the crash site
is only 250 yards from the lake.
Just before
crashing, the Wellington narrowly missed a farmhouse
still occupied by a man who was six-years-old at the
time. His mother, on hearing a low-flying
aircraft, followed by an explosion, had thought that the
Germans were trying to bomb the dam on the south side of
the lake. She rushed outside to remove the white bed sheets from the
washing line, thinking that enemy may have taken them to be some kind of signal. Mr. Evans also recalled
his mother saying that after the Wellington's engines and guns had
been taken away, most of the wreckage was left for many
years. All that now remains on the wooded
hillside are small pieces of wreckage at the Wellington's
impact crater, which can now easily be passed unseen.
Showing the proposed route that X3785 was to have taken. Sergeant Lee attempts to send a message as X3785 loses height The presentation of the Memorial Picture "Before We Go" An RAF Tornado flies low down the lake and dips it's wings in tribute to the crew of X3785 The pilot may well have been trying to ditch in Lake Vyrnwy
Showing the proposed route that X3785 was to have taken.
On August l8th
2002, the aircraft and crew were remembered by around seventy guests at the "Tavern
Inn" near the lake, where Rob presented a picture entitled
"Before We Go", representing the crew of X3785
studying their charts before take-off.
The sounding of the Last Post was
followed by a minute's silence and an address by the Reverend Dick
Jones.
To complete the
dedication, a Royal Air Force Tornado flew over the lake,
dipping its wings at the spot where X3785 had fallen.
"Before We
Go"
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