Tiger Moth DE215 in Ullswater.

During the morning of 25th June 1945 this aircraft was being flown on a navigation exercise and they took off from Crosby on Eden at 10.00hrs. Twenty minutes into the flight the aircraft was being flown low over Ullswater and with the navigator flying the aircraft at the time it struck the water and began to sink. The pilot in the back seat of the aircraft was able to get out of the sinking aircraft but the navigator in the front seat appears to have either been trapped or stunned by the crash and he was unable to get free or be rescued before the aircraft sank. Sadly his body was never found or recovered and he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. The investigation found that the training unit should have removed the control column from front seat before the aircraft was used for navigation training. It may be infered that this trapped the navigator inside the cockpit. Information shared with me by author Mike Hurst suggests that the location of this incident was in the Sandwick Bay area of Ullswater.

Pilot - Sgt Raymond James Fewings RAFVR (572704).

Navigator - Sgt Ian Walter Jenkins RAFVR (1606639), aged 21. Commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

Ian Jenkins was born on 24th January 1924 at Norwich, Norfolk and was the son of James and Eileen Jenkins. He attended Woking County Grammar School prior to enlisting into the RAFVR and at the time of his death his parents were living at Addlestone, Surrey.

Ancestry display details of a Raymond James Fewings who was born on 12th June 1922.

The location of where this incident occurred has not yet been found. If you can assist please contact me HERE. Thank you.

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