On 17th September 1941 the pilot of this aircraft was undertaking a map reading exercise when he became lost low cloud having flown into poor weather. Running out of fuel he
was attempting to force land the aircraft but in making a steep turn the aircraft stalled and crashed in Lowther Castle parkland. This aircraft was delivered to the RAF from the manufacturers Miles Aircraft Ltd and placed into storage at 27 MU at Shawbury on 28th March 1938 and was issued to 15 EFTS at Kingstown (Carlisle) on 11th Ausgut 1940. It was written
off following the crash landing in Lowther Park.
Pilot - LAC Josef Nalepa PAF (781204).
Josef Napela was born on 16th October 1921. After completing his training he was later posted to 300 Squadron. On the night of 22nd / 23rd May 1943 he was the pilot of Lancaster LL857
flying Ops to Dortmund but abandoned the flight over the North Sea because of engine trouble. The crew partly jettisoned the bomb load over the sea. On approach to land at Faldingworth
the aircraft struck a gunnery range on the edge of the airfield. Sadly two of the crew were killed and one later died of his injuries. F/Sgt Nalepa was injured. He recovered from his injuries and was later posted to 18 OTU, while training with this unit on the night of 2nd / 3rd October 1943 he was the pilot of Wellington LN545 when it was forced landed in a field just inside Lincolnshire around three miles east of Finningley airfield. While those on board escaped injury the aircraft was badly damaged. He was then posted to 1586 Flight (attached to 148 Squadron) soon after for SOE work. I have not found any proper details of this unit but on 2nd September 1944 he was flying Halifax BB389 on an SOE operation to either Yugoslavia or Warsaw, Poland when the aircraft was hit by flak over Sombor, near Belgrade. It crashed in Yugoslavia with the loss of all the crew apart from the navigator. WO Napela is buried in Belgrade War Cemetery and was twenty two years old.
The location of where this incident occurred near Penrith has not yet been found. If you can assist please contact me
HERE. Thank you.
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