On the night of 12th / 13th July 1944 the crew of this 18 Operational Training Unit Wellington took off from Finningley airfield at 22.45hrs to undertake a night time cross country training exercise. With the route of the training flight complete the crew joined the landing circuit of Finningley and were awaiting instruction to land at 02.30hrs when the aircraft crashed around a mile south of the airfield near the Mount Pleasant Hotel, North Road, Rossington. Sadly all on board were killed in the crash.
Pilot - WO Leon Gawlowski PAF (P.784745), aged 28. Buried Newark Cemetery, Nottinghamshire.
Navigator - Sgt Andrzej Chmielowiec PAF (P.704065), aged 23. Buried Newark Cemetery, Nottinghamshire.
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Stanislaw Tadeusz Hryniewiecki PAF (P.704258), aged 31. Buried Newark Cemetery, Nottinghamshire.
Wireless Operator - Sgt Wladyslaw Doda PAF (P.704993), aged 22. Buried Newark Cemetery, Nottinghamshire.
Air Gunner - Sgt Lucjan Klepacki PAF (P.706635), aged 29. Buried Newark Cemetery, Nottinghamshire.
Air Gunner - Sgt Marian Lewicki PAF (P.706290), aged 27. Buried Newark Cemetery, Nottinghamshire.
Wellington Z1696 was built to contract B.97887/40 by Vickers Armstrong's Ltd. at Hawarden. It was received by 18 MU on 5th May 1942 and after a long period of MU storage it was taken on charge by 429 Squadron at East Moor on 31st December 1942 shortly after the unit had formed there on 7th November 1942. As a result of damage sustained on 26th January 1943 minor Cat.A/FB damage was the assessment and it was repaired on site though this incident is not recorded on it's AM Form 78. It's AM78 does record that it sustained Cat.Ac/FA damage on 1st March 1943 that was repaired on site by a team from Vickers at Weybridge. No details of what happened are yet known. The aircraft was returned to 429 Squadron on 24th April 1943 but in April 1943 429 Squadron ceased operating the Wellington variant. It was taken on charge by 18 O.T.U. at Finningley on 11th May 1943. It is listed in the 18 O.T.U. / Finningley station orb as having a damaged stern frame and bomb beam fabric on 5th June 1944 which was repaired on site, presumably after a Cat.Ac damage assessment. It was returned to 18 O.T.U. on 23rd June 1944. On 13th July 1944 it crashed a mile from Finningley on return from a training flight with all of the crew of six Polish airmen being killed. Cat.E2/FA damage was recorded and the aircraft was written off. It was struck off charge on 20th July 1944.
Graves of all six airmen buried in the large Polish plot in Newark Cemetery.