During the afternoon of 21st April 1944 this aircraft was being flown on an army co-operation exercise when, fifteen minutes into the flight it flew into a hillside at around 900 feet above sea level at 16.30hrs. The aircraft crashed into fields near Ghyll Farm, between Haile and Ennerdale Bridge and broke up. Both the pilot and drogue operator were killed. Technically this aircraft crashed just outside the National Park boundary.
Martinet HN962 was delivered to the RAF and to 38 MU at Llandown on 10th November 1942. It served its whole service with life with units involved in anti-aircraft co-operation work. It first served with 1605 Flight at Towyn on 23rd November 1942 before passing to 1608 Flight at Aberporth on 1st June 1943. It was taken on charge by 595 Squadron also at Aberporth on 1st December 1943 and passed to 679 Squadron at Ipswich on23rd February 1944 and finally to 650 Squadron based at Cark on 4th March 1944. It sustained Cat.E damage as a result of the crash detailed above and was written off.
Pilot - Sgt John Walter Sigsworth RAFVR (1517415), aged 22, of Acklam, Middlesbrough. Buried Middlesbrough RC (Thorntree) Cemetery, Yorkshire (A/108).
Drogue Operator - Cpl George Arthur Hall RAFVR (1184914), aged 22, of Audlem. Buried Audlem Cemetery, Cheshire.
John Sigsworth.
Ade Harris located the crash site in 2014 with permission of the farmer locating a few small fragments of the aircraft in the grass. One of these pieces contains a small "P&P" stamp which was the markings of Phillips & Powis who made the Martinet. A group linked to the former Millom air museum are thought to have carried a dig at this crash site in the 1980s.
The small item located at the crash site in 2014 with the "P&P" markings.
