Avro Anson Mk.I DJ680 of No.2 (Observer) Advanced Flying Unit crashed near Hollingworth on the 20th March 1944

 

Harold Edward Rimmer Flight Sergeant Pilot Survived
Archie Gordon Boyd Flight Sergeant RAAF Wireless Operator Survived
Norman Kerr Pilot Officer Passenger Survived
Stanley George Jacobs Sergeant RAAF Passenger Survived
Douglas J. Mance Sergeant Passenger Survived

 

The flight was recorded as being a Navigation Training exercise from RAF Millom in south west Cumbria, while flying in low cloud at 07:15 the aircraft struck Hollingworth Moor. The aircraft was not declared a write off, but was Category B meaning that it was damaged to the point that it could not be repaired on site but would be recovered to a Maintenance Unit where it could be repaired.

This was not the first encounter with a hill that the aircraft had during its RAF service.

On the 4th October 1942 while in service with No.1 Air Observer School at Wigtown the aircraft had crashed on Pibble Hill near Gatehouse of Fleet while on night navigation exercise. One of the trainee navigators, LAC Livermore, was injured in the crash. He was later taken off aircrew training on the recommendation of an RAF Psychiatrist as he had developed a fear of flying following the crash and 26 hours on the hill waiting for rescue.

Two of those on the aircraft were killed while in service.

Sgt Stanley Jacobs was killed on the 2nd September 1944 while onboard Halifax Mk.II LW344 of No.1656 HCU, when that aircraft crashed at Little Casterton near Oakham after the pilot(s) lost control of the aircraft after entering a thunderstorm. Sgt Jacobs is, along with two other crew members of LW344, buried at Cambridge City Cemetery.

The second to die was P/O Norman Kerr (a Flying Officer at the time of his death), he was a crew member onboard Dakota Mk.IV KN532 of No.48 Sqn when it crashed on the 5th September 1945. The aircraft was being used to fly hospital patients from Meiktila to Chittagong when it entered a monsoon thunderstorm. Shortly afterwards, following a loss of control, the port wing detached causing the aircraft to crash. All 31 personnel, mostly Army, where killed. F/O Kerr is buried at Taukkyan War Cemetery in Burma.