On 8th February 1942 this aircraft took off from Wellesbourne Mountford airfield with it's crew tasked with a daytime navigation exercise. During the flight the aircraft's wireless failed. After flying over the Isle of Man the aircraft approached the Solway Firth which the crew confused the Dumphries coast with another part of the coastline, one assumes in poor visibilty they then headed east and into the hills to the north of Keswick. The aircraft crashed near Burn Tod Gill in the Uldale Fells at 14.30hrs and broke up. All but the rear gunner were sadly killed in the crash, he walked away from the crash site and for some three miles down to Longlands to raise the alarm.
Pilot - Sgt Leslie George John Mizen RAFVR (1288036), aged 32, of Osterley, London. Buried Heston Churchyard, Middlesex.
Pilot - Sgt James Graham Hardie RAF (655306), aged 21, of Birkenhead. Buried Birkenhead (Landican) Cemetery, Cheshire.
Observer - P/O Denis John Richardson RCAF (J/6134), aged ? Of ? Buried Silloth Cemetery, Cumbria.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - F/Sgt Edward George Jenner RCAF (R/78631), aged 22, of Goderich, Ontario, Canada. Buried Silloth Cemetery, Cumbria.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - F/Sgt Louis Joseph Raymond Bechard RCAF (R/55401), aged 21, of Quebec City, Canada. Silloth Cemetery, Cumbria.
Rear Gunner - Sgt Rutherford, almost certainly Sgt Stuart John Gascoyne Rutherford RAFVR (927349), of Bevendean, Sussex. Injured.
Four of the five graves of the men who died as a result of this accident.
Denis Richardson was born on 24th June 1919.
Edward Jenner was born on 24th November 1919.
Louis Bechard was born on 12th September 1920.
Stuart Rutherford was later Mentioned in Despatches and almost certainly for his actions following this accident in the Lake District though no confirmation in the London Gazette has been found. He was later posted to 10 OTU and flying in Whitley BD412 on 31st March 1943 when the aircraft crashed into the sea off Cornwall. He was twenty one years old and his body was never found, he is commemerated on the Runnymede Memorial.
Because of the poor visiblity on the day I visited the crash site these are the best photograph I am able to show of the area of where the crash occured!
The photograph above shows the only peice of the aircraft Graham Sharpe found in April 1972 which probably confirms that there was very little left to see at the crash site back then.
Not much of the actual metal airframe of the aircraft remains on the surface at the site. This is just about all that is left on the surface at the crash site in April 2011.
The fragment of bakerlite shown above is part of a battery, the lettering on the first line would, complete, have read "leAD ACId".