Hawker Typhoon Mk.IB MN532 of No.56 Operational Training Unit, RAF, crashed on Stony Hill, Ayrshire 27th March 1945

Hawker Typhoon at the RAF Museum, Hendon

 

Robert Samuel Bellis Flying Officer RCAF Pilot Killed

Flying Officer Bellis was on a training flight from RAF Milfield in Northumberland on the 27th March 1945 when he flew into the south eastern flank of Stony Hill, near Muirkirk in Ayrshire. The wrecked aircraft lay undiscovered until the 30th March. On the 3rd April F/O Bellis was laid to rest at Stonefall Cemetery in Harrogate, along with another airman from No.56 OTU who had died as the result of a separate flying accident on the 27th March.

Grave of Flying Officer Robert Samuel Bellis at Harrogate (Stonefall) Cemetery
Flying Officer Bellis’s headstone at Stonefall Cemetery, Harrogate.
Crash site of Hawker Typhoon Mk.IB MN532 on Stony Hill, Muirkirk, East Ayrshire
Little remains at the crash site today and for most of the year is fairly well concealed by the long grass which grows on the hillside.
Wreckage at the crash site of Hawker Typhoon Mk.IB MN532 on Stony Hill, Muirkirk, East Ayrshire
This is one of the larger pieces of aluminium structure which remains at the crash site.
Wreckage at the crash site of Hawker Typhoon Mk.IB MN532 on Stony Hill, Muirkirk, East Ayrshire
Other items at the crash site include steel tubes from the aircraft’s structure.
Napier Sabre engine from Hawker Typhoon Mk.IB MN532 which crashed on Stony Hill, Muirkirk, East Ayrshire
In 1982 the Napier Sabre engine from MN532 was recovered by the Dumfries & Galloway Aviation Museum, this is engine on display in the former control tower at Dumfries.