On 20th September 1942 the crew of this aircraft were undertaking a night navigation exercise in poor weather, the aircraft was flying in bad visibility and rain in the Ravenglass area when it flew into the ground on Muncaster Fell at around 01.40hrs. Sadly all on board the aircraft were killed when the aircraft flew into the hillside and struck an area covered in granite boulders near Gowder Barrow; a rock outcrop below "Ross's Camp" on Muncaster Fell. Since the War trees have been planted across this area of the hillside though the crash site seems to have been spared but bracken has taken hold in this area where there are no pine trees and the crash site is now difficult to locate.
Pilot - WO Thomas William Jupp RAFVR (909889), aged 23, of Compton, Surrey. Buried Haverigg Churchyard, Millom, Cumbria.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - F/Sgt Charles Henry Kemp RAF (650479), aged 21, of Windsor, Berkshire. Buried Windsor Cemetery, Berkshire.
Navigator U/T - Cpl Sydney Elliott RAFVR (657986), aged 27, of Wylam. Buried Ovingham Burial Ground, Prudhoe, Northumberland.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner U/T - LAC Douglas Charles Lord RAFVR (1219799), aged 20, of Leicester. Buried Gilroes Cemetery, Leicester.
Navigator U/T - LAC Ernest George Goodall RAFVR (1390472), aged 21, of Hammersmith, London. Buried Mortlake Cemetery, Surrey.
Thomas Jupp and his gravestone in Haverigg Churchyard, the photograph of him is credited to Philip Gorton and "www.house-history-research.co.uk".
Sydney Elliott's gravestone at Ovingham, Northumberland.
Pine woodland was planted across the hillside in the years after the war and many of the trees are now mature, the crash site seems to have been spared from the pine trees but a number of well established mature broad leaved trees have since grown up over the crash site. In Summer 2013 when I visited the site was also covered by bracken being guided there by military historian Mr Ade Harris who had spent many hours locating the site earlier in the year when the bracken had died back.
Getting a photograph of the general area of this crash site and a view back over the direction it had come from was impossible at the crash site because of the tree cover but this photograph was taken much higher up the hillside and shows the rough direction the aircraft had flown in from.
A piece with a identification stamp on it, the "R3" signifies the aircraft was built by Avro.
Possibly the best of the finds in the leaf mould was this plate.
The edge of a window section.
An MoD licence to excavate / recover items from the site was granted on 29th January 1993. I would welcome contact from anyone involved and would love to see any photographs of items found and recovered.
Ernest Goodall is commemorated on a memorial in Guy's Hospital, London, SE1.
