The pilot of Hurricane V7742 was flying with another Hurricane (V6565) of the same training unit when both aircraft flew into high ground on Slight Side, on the southern end of Scafell on 12th August 1941. Both pilots were killed instantly when the aircraft struck the ground while flying in formation. The crash investigation believed that the lead pilot was uncertain of where he was while flying in cloud and descended through cloud and struck the ground at 2,500ft above sea level. This pilot was the formation leader. I list the each incident and pilot's detailed on seperate webpages and credit the pilot to the aircraft as given on the RAF's AM Form 1180. V7742 was built by Hawker, V6565 was built under contract by Gloster. The memorial is at the crash site of V6565. Because of the different manufacturers and the information held on the AM1180's that V7742 burnt on crashing where as V6565 did not catch fire help identify both crash sites.
Pilot - Sgt Stanislaw Karubin DFM PAF (793420), aged 25, buried Castletown Cemetery, Sunderland.
Stanislaw Karubin was a Battle of Britain ace. He was born on 19th October 1915 in Warsaw and trained at the Szkoola Podoficerow dla Maloletnich in Bydgoszcz. In 1939 he was posted to the 111 Eskadra and is credited with destroying a Bf110 in September 1939 with this Unit. He escaped from Poland and served in ECD I/55 in France in May 1940 flying a range of fighter aircraft. After the fall of France he joined 303 Squadron at Northolt on it's formation on 2nd August 1940 and shot down a number of enemy aircraft during the Battle of Britain. In early September he was himself shot down by a Heinkel HeIII (whilst he also shot down in the process) and Hurricane V7290 crashed at Pembury; he sustained injuries and was admitted to Farnborough Hospital though his stay must have been brief as he destroyed a Bf109 on 30th September 1940. He was credited with a number of aircraft to his name though the exact number is not yet known - sources seem to vary. One incident, probably the one at the begining of September 1940, whilst going after a Bf109 he forced it lower and lower until the two were just above the treetops. When Karubin finally exhausted his ammunition he flew straight for the Bf109, missing it by only a yard or two but the unnerved German lost control and crashed. Ten days later on 15th September 1940 he tried the same thing again but this time misjudged things and struck the German aircraft and was left to bail out over the Thames Estuary. He was awarded the Polish V.M. medal (5th Class) on 23rd December 1940 and the K.W. on 23rd December 1940. He was later posted for instructional duties, firstly to 58 OTU at Grangemouth on 7th March 1941 and later to 55 OTU at Usworth, Sunderland which was the Unit he was flying with when he was sadly killed in the Lake District. He was awarded the DFM on 30th October 1941 (no citation has been located) and two Bars to the K.W. after his death on 31st October 1947.
Will Lund and I first located this crash site in May 2003 and then we returned in May 2007. The impact point was high up on the solid rock, the aircraft exploded and the majority of wreckage fell down the scree though smaller burnt items are jammed in rocks higher up the scree where it fell to after the impact.
This photograph above shows the Rolls Royce Merlin engine's crankshaft showing the force in which the aircraft struck.
Myself with both main undercarriage legs (left) and a stainless steel control part with a "HA" Hawker identification mark just about visible (right) confirming this aircraft was V7742.
Part of the main structural sections of the Hurricane.
A propeller blade stub found between both Hurricane crash sites.