By: Howells - 4th April 2013 at 15:52
Lancaster ND861 PM-H
Hello David,
Small world (but I wouldn’t like to paint it!) I have done a lot of investigation around the loss of this aircraft….Chris Weight was my wife’s uncle! We seem to be related by Chris and his brother Tom.
I have a little on the other crew members but have only managed to contact one a relative of Chris’s navigator Henry Backway. The crew of a Lanc was 7 and so one is missing from the crew photo – do you have this? I suspect that it is the Flt Eng. I also have copies of various documents and photos of Chris sent to his brother.
It would be great to discuss this sometime as I have done a lot of investigating the circumstances around this crash. Are you Gordon’s son please?
Sorry for all the questions – quite exciting as I have made only slow progress over the years…
Regards,
Dave.
By: 103 sqn raf - 26th November 2012 at 18:42
ND861
Hi Soupie
My name is David Weight and I am the grandson of P/O Chris Weight which is the Lancaster your first query was about. Please see the reply we received from English Heritage who maintain records of wrecks
Dear Mr Weight,
thank you for your enquiry regarding the Lancaster Bomber ND861. The record on Pastscape NMR 1356555 is the only information we have for this aircraft. The record is for the wreck site, as this bomber crashed into the river Humber (as opposed to ‘crash site’ for land-based sites). The exact location in the Humber is not known, but approximately, (National grid reference) TA 31239 13336. The aircraft took off for training at 14:24 from Elsham Wolds, the weather deteriorated during the course of the sortie and they encountered a blizzard and crashed at 14.40 into the river Humber near the port of Hull. All six crew members were missing. The aircraft served with 460 Sqn under RAF Control 25/07/44 to 25/07/44. Total Missions 44.
The website http://www.unithistories.com/officers/RAFVR_officers_W01.html has a list which includes your grandfather (scroll down to ‘Weight’).
I think ND862 was sent to 1661 Heavy Conversion Unit, I don’t have any more details for ND862 unfortunately . Was your wife’s Uncle RAFVR?
David Weight
By: Arabella-Cox - 26th June 2012 at 12:54
Many thanks for that Simon.
Soupie
By: Arabella-Cox - 26th June 2012 at 09:59
That would be ND861 PM-H I think.
According to Chorley’s Bomber Command Losses 1945, page 29, it left Elsham Wolds at 1424 on a training flight, but they flew into a snowstorm and crashed at 1440 into the Humber near Hull. All the crew are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
P/O C J Weight
P/O G E Widdicombe
F/O M D Pickersgill
Sgt H G Backway
Sgt C F Hillier
Sgt C Lloyd
Regards
Simon
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June 26, 2012 at 9:20 am