In the early hours of 9th August 1943 the crew of this aircraft were detailed to carry out a night cross-country training flight with No.10 (Observer) Advanced Flying Unit and they took off from Dumfries at 01.26hrs. The route the crew were instructed to fly saw them take off from Dumfries and navigate to turning points of the Morecambe Light Vessel, Newton Stewart and Burrows Head. The flight was also due to have a simulated bombing aspect to it but the accidents records do not state where this was due to have been made. Over the next few hours several QDM's were given to the crew by radio from Silloth airfield which suggests that they were not aware of where they were so were asking for ground assistance to home them there. The weather had been a major problem for crews flying this exercise on this date and several crashed in the Lake District. They all appear to have drifted off course in a very strong wind. The last of these QDM's was transmitted to this aircraft at 04.33hrs, around five minutes before it probably crashed, but by this time it was flying below the height of the highest mountains in the area. It was initially recorded as missing. The wreckage from this aircraft was not found until 11th August 1943 close to the summit of Scafell and sadly all on board were killed as a result of this accident. After an investigation it was thought probable that a ground direction finding operator who was in contact with the aircraft had given a wrong bearing that the crew had then turn on to though higher ranking officers disagreed with this. The ground officer was working alone for many hours and was overworked on this night.
Pilot - F/Sgt Stanislaw Kowalczyk PAF (P.780579), aged 23. Buried Dumfries Roman Catholic Cemetery, Dumfriesshire.
Navigator - Sgt John Taylor Chadwick RAFVR (1434605), aged 21. Buried Blacon Cemetery, Chester.
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Thomas William Pickering RCAF (R/164677), aged 19. Buried Blacon Cemetery, Chester.
Navigator - Sgt Robert Stanley Deason RAFVR (1390632), aged 20. Cremated South London Crematorium, Mitcham, London.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Thomas Scorer Wheatley Lawson RAFVR (1048296), aged 21. Buried Sacriston, Co.Durham.
Stanislaw Kowalczyk and his grave in Dumfries Cemetery. He was born on 2nd December 1919 at Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland. His photograph was found on "niebieskaeskadra.pl".
Thomas Pickering was born on 16th May 1924 at Montreal, Quebec, Canada and was the son of William and Eunice Jane (nee Elkin) Pickering. Both his parents were marrried in Aston, Birmingham, England in 1911 but had emigrated soon after. The minister who baptised him at the Livingstone Church, Montreal would give him a character reference when he joined the RCAF which suggests that he was a regular attendee. After leaving school in 1939 he worked as a clerk for a paint company but later left to attend university though he did not complete this course. He initially enlisted into the 3rd Canadian Motor Cycle Regiment in 1940 but after four months it was discovered he was too young so was was discharged. He was working for an electric company when he enlisted for RCAF service on 22nd May 1942 at Montreal. After training in Canada as an air bomber he was awarded his Air Observer flying badge on 14th May 1943. He was then posted to the UK in July 1943 and his first flying unit was No.10 (O)AFU, where he arrived on 12th July 1943.
Thomas had a older brother, Frank Edward Pickering, who also served in the RCAF. He was killed on 6th May 1944 flying in 404 Squadron Beaufighter LZ446 on an operational flight to Norway. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. Their mother died in 1948.
John Chadwick was born on 14th July 1922 at Bury, Lancashire and was the son of Richard and Dorothy (nee Taylor) Chadwick. He is shown working for the Inland Revenue as a tax officer on the 1939 Register.
Robert Deason was born in late-1922 in London and was the son of Stanley and Elizabeth (nee White) Deason. His name is redacted from the 1939 Register but his family were living at Bromley, Kent in 1939 with his father working as an insurance clerk. Robert is commemorated on the Bromley County Boys Grammar School war memorial in the school library.
Thomas Lawson was the son of Nicholas and Frances Olive (nee Robson) Lawson. His parents were both from Chester le Street but later moved to Sacriston where his father was a coal miner. Thomas is redacted from the 1939 Register but his parents are listed at Sacriston with his father noted as being incapacitated.
This Anson crashed close to the summit of Scafell, towards the centre/right of the photograph shown above and wreckage was then scattered for many hundreds of metres down the mountainside, as shown in the photograph below.
Wreckage close to the area of impact. I visited the crash site in May 2007 some years after locating wreckage much lower down the mountain. The aircraft crashed within feet of a main path up to the summit of Scafell and wreckage is easily visible from this path.
Another photograph showing the same area of impact.
I initially located some wreckage from this aircraft in May 2003 but well below the point of the crash and have not returned to this lower wreckage with a digital camera.
A plate from part of the camera equipment the aircraft must have been carrying. The Air Ministry part number "14a/730" relates to a Williamson camera film magazine.
A fine example of the yellow colour scheme that was painted to many of the training aircraft based in the UK during the Second World War.
An example of an Avro "R3" inspection stamp.
A piston from one of the engines.
Anson DJ275 was delivered as new to 10 A.O.S. on 13th April 1942. During an inspection on 12th November 1942 it was deemed in need of a repair on site, once complete the aircraft was returned to 10 A.O.S. on 28th November 1942. As a result of the crash on 9th August 1943 on Scafell Cat.E2/FA damage was the damage assessment that saw it struck off charge on 27th August 1943.