On 3rd August 1937 this aircraft being flown back from Ternhill airfield in the South of England upto Turnhouse in Scotland along the East Coast of England. This route was used in the 1930's when navigation aids were very basic. On this date the intension was for the pilot to land at Usworth, near Sunderland to refuel before finishing his journey. While flying the leg to Usworth, possibly from Catfoss after re-fuelling the pilot encountered fog over the Middlesbrough area at 14.27hrs, he then orbited the general area for sometime and tried to land at Thornaby at 15.15hrs, low cloud prevented this so he made for the coast again. He force landed the aircraft in a field near Liverton upon running low on fuel but the aircraft overran the selected field into a wooded ravine which damaged the undercarriage and propeller but the rest of the aircraft was fairly intact. The pilot sustained minor injuries and was admitted to Thornaby airfield's sick quarters. The aircraft was later inspected and the wreckage was taken to Thornaby airfield on 1st September 1937.
Hind K5529 was built to contract 404654/35 by Hawker and was delivered to 2 ASU on the 29th June 1936, it later transferred to 83 Squadron on 31st July 1936 and it remained with with them until this incident. After inspection it was deemed beyond repair and written off with Cat.W/FA damage recorded. It was struck off charge on 1st October 1937 with 231.15hrs total flying time.
Pilot - P/O Cyril Douglas Swain RAF (37658). Sustained facial cuts and an injured eye.
Cyril Swain was born on 15th December 1911 in Wem, Shropshire, he was granted a Short Service Commission in the RAF in 1935 and was confirmed in the rank of P/O from Acting P/O on probation on 24th February 1936. He qualified as a pilot in August 1936. He rose to F/O on an unknown date and then to F/Lt on 27th August 1940. At the time of this incident at Loftus he had flown 96 hours on the Hind type and a total of 304 hours flying time. He sustained eye injuries in the incident and although he remained in the RAF he suffered some trouble with his vision and was taken off pilot duties in favour of him becoming a navigation instructor until his sight improved. He passed his navigation licence exam in October 1937 but later re-trained as a pilot and was later posted to 105 Squadron. He flew his first operational flight during the Battle of Britain period but with No.2 Group, Bomber Command. On 28th November 1940 he was flying in Blenheim T1893 on Ops to Dusseldorf, the aircraft left Swanton Morley at 17.28hrs but was shot down and he and his crew of two were captured and became PoW's. F/Lt Cyril Swain was one of a number of prisoners of war who escaped Stalag Luft III in March 1944 in what became known as The Great Escape. He was later captured near Gorlitz and passed into the hands of the Gestapo, on 31st March 1944 he was one of the fifty who were murdered by Lux and Gestapo Chief Dr Wilhelm Scharpwinkel on the 31st of March 1944. Within three days they murdered twenty of the fifty men and probably twenty three in total over the period of a week. F/Lt Swain was cremated at Liegnitz but his ashes now lie in Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery, Poland; the cemetery contains the remains of many of his fellow escapees and other Allied military graves. Lux later died while fighting near Breslau in 1945 and Scharpwinkel went missing in the Soviet Zone but was reported to have been given a high ranking position in the Soviet establishment.
Cyril Swain was Mentioned in Despatches after his death on 8th June 1944, probably as word had got back home about his work done as a PoW. This appeared in the London Gazette on that same date and at this time he is listed as deceased, therefore word must have got home about his death through the Red Cross.
Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery, F/Lt Swain's grave is to the left of the rose in the front row.
Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery. These photographs of Cyril Swain's grave and of the cemetery were taken by my friend Mr Leszek Kozak in August 2008 during a holiday to his home country. Whilst I have reduced them in size for display on this website if anyone researching the Great Escape or F/Lt Swain's life would like better resolution copies of these photographs please email me.
My thanks to Mrs Shelagh Richardson and Mr Oliver Richardson of Wem for contacting in June 2010 and for these photographs of the Wem War Memorial.