MEMORIAL TO CREW OF LANCASTER PB812

STAN05, very many thanks for posting this. I was at this service having got to know Linda after interviewing the crash witness, George Plant, for the IBCC. I’ll let IBCC know that this service is on YouTube. As you say, Linda did a marvellous job.
David

Thanks to all who have given this some thought. I’ve sent a link of this post to Linda in Australia.

There seem to be two conflicting reports of the weather conditions

1. The met report of ‘Rainy with strong winds’
2. An old man’s memory of ‘No rain, no winds, few clouds’

I don’t have access to the Cranwell hourly observations for the afternoon of 10 Feb 1945, but at 1200 GMT (1 pm local time) the wind was WSW 25-31 mph with 3/10 cumulus at 2500 ft. There was a light shower at some time during the afternoon, but that only amounted to 0.1 mm. Some CuNimbs developed during the afternoon, but I suspect that was later rather than earlier. By 1800 GMT the wind had dropped to 8-12 mph. (Source Met Office Daily Weather Report which may be accessed online).

Reading the witness statement to me it reads like fire and smoke from engine exhausts with a lot of fuel being fed into the engines, confined to the centre portion of both port & starboard wings and only only being trailed to halfway between the wings and tailplanes. The AOC’s comment about the aircraft having possibly been inverted (or under negative g) and the effect on the fuel system are interesting, I know carburetor fed engines tended not to like being put into the wrong orientation.

This also begs the question as to whether the Court’s conclusions may have ben due to a desire at the time to ensure morale was maintained to avoid blame being sheeted home to equipment failures, especially when the equipment was the much loved and respected Lancaster…

I wouldn’t read any great ‘conspiracy’ into the conclusions of the Court of Inquiry; the Lancaster was a mature, very-well respected design by 1945 but it suffered its fair share of training accidents like any other aircraft. It is doubtful the morale of other crews would have been much influenced by this accident; they’d have been aware of the risks of operational flying, under wartime conditions operations would certainly continue and, I’m sure, there was no other aircraft the crews would rather be flying (despite the accidents).

Also it was February 1945, the war was all-but won in Europe and the Lancaster had played its part; just this one accident, one of many, would be unlikely to tarnish the reputation of the Lancaster.

Plus the Court of Inquiry, although it couldn’t say conclusively, did point the finger of blame to ‘equipment failures’ within the Lancaster.

If the Court had ‘conspired’ to avoid doing that wouldn’t it have blamed ‘pilot error’ or some other cause?

One of the early Lancasters dived to destruction after the fabric detached from the elevators during a high-speed dive if I remember correctly.

The only other incident of four-engined bombers mysteriously diving to destruction during training that I can think of concerns the Short Stirling. Several aircraft were lost when pilots fell forward onto the control-column during diving manoeuvres; apparently the pilots in question hadn’t been wearing their seat harnesses because they were ‘uncomfortable’.

That’s an interesting thought.

Is it possible that a rapid pitch-down could have caused the engines to over rev or rich cut, resulting in smoky exhausts?

I wonder how the eyewitness account of ‘flames and smoke coming from both wings’ contributed to the findings of the original Court of Inquiry?

What circumstance could result in a simultaneous problem to both wings that would lead to ‘flames and smoke’ yet one that would leave all four engines running? A simultaneous structural failure of both (outer) wings?

Maybe an autopilot fault caused the Lancaster to pitch down suddenly to such a degree that it suffered structural failure of the (outer) wing panels? I can’t think of any other reason that an autopilot problem would cause fire to break-out in both wings.

More detailed info here:

PB 812 – What really happened on 10 February 1945?

On Saturday, 10 February 1945, 460 Squadron had no operations and Lancaster PB812 undertook a triangular navigational exercise flight with 2 legs southward from Binbrook in Lincolnshire and the third leg north back towards the base.

Coming back on the 3rd and last leg north, the plane crashed catastrophically at 3:45pm next to the old Caythorpe railway station and just east of Caythorpe village. A pilot who had just taken off from Cranwell said he saw the aircraft dive almost vertically towards the west with flames and smoke coming from both wings. The plane hit the ground with all engines running and all six on-board were killed. The met report stated that the weather was rainy with strong winds, and a cloud base of 2000-2500 feet. The six were buried in the RAF cemetery at Cambridge on 15 February 1945.

The crew comprised F/Sgt R (Dick) Miller (pilot), F/O Jeff Downing (navigator), F/Sgt Rhod Pope (wireless operator), F/Sgt Graeme Dockery (air gunner), F/Sgt Anthony (Tony) Robinson (air gunner) (all being RAAF) and F/Sgt Freddie Nesbit-Bell (flight engineer) RAF.

Missing from the crew that day was the bomb aimer, F/Sgt Arnold (George) Kloeden RAAF. He had been sick in hospital and was discharged on the 10th February but arrived at the airfield a few minutes too late to board the plane. George died in 2003.

In the only extracts from the Court inquiry the writer has been able to locate, the Court concluded that:

• The aircraft was on fire before it hit the ground, based on the testimony of a warrant officer from Signals Squadron No 1 Radio School Cranwell who was the other pilot flying at the time,
• While the Court didn’t come to any definite conclusion regarding the cause of the crash, it referred to an earlier report by a previous pilot of PB 812 that the automatic pilot had caused the plane to go into a sudden and violent vertical dive which the pilot was able to correct,
• Relevantly, the previous pilot confirmed that the auto pilot had been repaired and had given no trouble for a further 4 flights,
• Although the Court found that there was insufficient evidence to blame an unserviceable autopilot, it found the pilot should have been able to disengage a malfunctioning autopilot, as had been done on previous occasions in other planes. Interestingly, the Court recommended training in automatic pilots at Heavy Conversion Units should be encouraged to the “maximum degree”.

69 years have passed since this event occurred. Remarkably some pieces of Lancaster PB812 were excavated in the 1970s by the Lincolnshire Aircraft Recovery Group and are held at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at RAF East Kirby.

The Court’s conclusions are puzzling, being at variance with the testimony of an eyewitness to the accident, who is still alive. This witness was only recently located following an article on the crash in a local newspaper in February of this year. The writer has spoken to the eyewitness who was 17 at the time and who was in the presence of 2 friends of similar age. These persons were waiting for a bus when they saw PB 812 diving vertically. They fully expected the plane to come out of the dive, as they had witnessed such manoeuvres several times before. They were shocked to see the plane crash into the ground, and are adamant it was not on fire. The eyewitness also noted that there was no rain and no winds to speak of with very few clouds.

If the testimony of the 17-year-old eyewitness (now 87) is to be preferred, then the question remains as to whether the crash was in fact attributable to a faulty autopilot. This also begs the question as to whether the Court’s conclusions may have ben due to a desire at the time to ensure morale was maintained to avoid blame being sheeted home to equipment failures, especially when the equipment was the much loved and respected Lancaster.

Any input from readers as to their experiences with Lancaster auto pilot malfunctions, or unexpected vertical dives, would be appreciated. It would also be appreciated if readers knew any of the crew of PB 812.