All the more poignant are the details of the tragedies.
Both crews were both from the RAF and different parts of the Commonwealth.
Both crews were on training flights and both were within a mile of touchdown.
Both accidents happened in January 1945, one on the 12th and the other on the 29th.
This long-overdue physical memorial to the crews of two Lancaster bombers who perished within sight of the home airfield was dedicated at midday on Sunday May 30th 2010
Hoveringham Lancaster Memorial
This plane, PA 474 from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, was unable to over fly the Memorial during the day, as the weather was unkind and the wind was gusting over the safe limit. We shall try for same day next year!
The evening of 12th January was drizzly with low cloud.
The pilot of JBI25. Guy Dunlop of New Zealand, banked steeply to port over Hoveringham as he attempted to line up with and return to the main runway at Syerston. The aircraft lost a critical amount of height during this manoeuvre. It came down in the field beside the river and passed through a hedge, before coming to rest about 100 yards further on.
The actual site is now under the water of the sailing lake.
All the crew perished in the ensuing inferno and the incident is well remembered by Hoveringham villagers who ran to help the airmen.
The crew of Lancaster MK lll JB125 was:
P/O Guy Dunlop Pilot RNZAF Aged 28
Flt Sgt Peter Hill Navigator RNZAF Aged 22
Sgt Albert Evans BEM Air Bomber RAF Aged 26
Flt SgtRichard Staples W.Op/Air gunner RNZAF Aged 23
Sgt Patrick Browne Flt Engineer RAF Aged 20
Sgt Richard Sedgley Rear Gunner RAF Aged 19
Sgt William Cairns Mid-Upper Gunner RAF Aged 19
Seventeen days later, the crew of LM308 was on their final training flight before being posted to an operational squadron. Their Canadian pilot, Richard Rathbone, was an experienced aviator who had previously performed a skilful emergency landing earlier in his flying career when the bomber he was flying suffered a double engine failure.
On the night of 28/29th January 1945, the crew had completed a cross-country exercise and had asked to go to the bombing range (at Epperstone) but this request was refused by Syerston because of low cloud.
Rathbone was instructed to rejoin the circuit around the airfield, which he did.
At 0214 hrs eyewitnesses at Syerston saw flames from both his port engines and at 0216 his Lancaster crashed at high speed and exploded on impact in what is now the sailing lake.
All the crew were killed instantly.
Lancaster Mklll LM308
W0ll Richard Rathbone Pilot RCAF Aged 28
Flt Sgt Hugh MacKenzie Navigator RCAF Aged 21
Flt Sgt John Emerson Air Bomber RCAF Aged 30
Flt Sgt John Reid W.Op Air Gunner RCAF Aged 20
Sgt John FitzGibbon Mid-Upper Gunner RCAF Aged 20
Sgt Albert Mercer Flt Engineer RAF Aged 23
Sgt Jasper Martin Rear Gunner RAF Aged 20
Helen Nall
£9.99
In the final months of the Second World War, on the 12th and 29th January 1945, two Lancaster bombers crashed in fields close to the village of Hoveringham in Nottinghamshire, with the loss of both crews.
Over six decades later, Helen Nall unexpectedly came across a fragment of aircraft alloy in one of her husband’s fields. Unaware, until then, of the story of the Lancasters, she talked to a local farmer who remembered the incident, and decided to investigate further.
Over the next year Helen tracked down the families of the aircrews and pieced together the final moments of the two Lancasters. This is her remarkable account of how the war affected Hoveringham and the surrounding villages. She covers the growth of Bomber Command into a mighty force, the construction of Syerston airfield - which dominated the parish of Hoveringham in the Trent Valley - and describes life for the bomber crews, as well as, of course, the Lancaster bombers which featured so largely in the lives of local people during the war.
Her book is a tribute to the 55,573 Bomber Command aircrew who did not live to see the end of the Second World War, but particularly to the fourteen young men who died so violently within sight of her home.
Sales and further information from
www.fergussonsportingart.co.uk
Newly published
We belive that the Village welcome on Saturday night was a great success and it meant that the many overseas relatives had met each other and were no longer strangers at the moving ceremony of dedication on Sunday. There were 3 TV units on the field but the best news item was in New Zealand on 3news. We hope to purchase this and have it available for private viewing in the Village Hall in the near future.
Any relative who requires direct contact with people they met in Hoveringham can email me at pwbwatson@aol.com or admin@hoveringham.org.uk and I will return their message with e-mail addresses.
Given a little more time this page will have a larger photo gallery - we are missing a good photo of the Hall on Saturday evening! All we have is one with the food trailer on Sunday!
All photos from the weekend gratefully received and unless specified will go into the gallery.
New
Photos Below
