Vickers Wellington Mk.X LP397 of 28 OTU, crashed near to Mayfield, which is just to the west of Ashbourne on the 13th June 1944
|
Crew / Passengers |
Rank - if applicable |
Position e.g. Pilot |
Status |
|
Joseph Star |
Flying Officer, RAF |
Pilot |
Killed |
| George David Wills Buchanan | Flying Officer, RCAF | Navigator | Killed |
| William Corley Davis | Sergeant, RCAF | Bomb Aimer | Killed |
| John Frederick Potts | Sergeant, RAFVR | Wireless Operator / Air Gunner | Killed |
| James Joseph Ursan Stevens | Sergeant, RCAF | Air Gunner | Killed |
| Richard John Taylor | Sergeant, RCAF | Air Gunner | Killed |
The crash occurred while the aircraft was on a cross country exercise from Castle Donington, about 25 minutes after it took off it entered a thunderstorm, shortly afterwards the aircraft was seen to dive near vertically out of the cloud and into the ground near the village of Mayfield.
A photo taken looking into the field in which the aircraft crashed. When we visited the site we found some small badly corroded items from the aircraft. The site was excavated during the late 1980s or very 90s, this removed most of the remaining wreckage.
The four Canadian members of the crew were buried at Brookwood Military Cemetery near London, below are photographs of their graves.
They lie in the first, second, fourth and fifth graves from the right in this photograph of the plot they are in.
