461 Squadron RAAF

In about Jan 2008 I was startled to stumble across a number of discussions concerning the loss of aircraft A of 461 Sqdrn RAAF which was said to have been shot down by Me 110 aircraft based at Herdla Norway on 1 October1944
My father served with 461 Sqdr RAAF and the lost aircraft was commanded by his closest friend HM Godsall known to all as Marsh Godsall. He was second in command of a detatchment of 461 Sqdn aircraft sent to Sollum Voe to relieve elements of 330 Royal Noewegian Air Force The deatchment arrived at Sollum Voe from Pembroke Dock on the 30 September 1944 (Marsh Godsalls birthday)The Commander of the detatchment made the “grand jesture ” of ordering his crews to immediately commmence anti-sub patrols on arrival notwithstanding the crews lack of operational expirence in artic conditions. He did this despite the fact that 330 Sqdn crews were not flying due to a rapidly advancing Artic cold front which was approaching .Three 461 aircraft were sent out on the 1 October 1944 My father had recently become tour expired however his crew commanded by his former first pilot Vince MacCauley and a crew commanded by the(now ) author Ivan Southall were sent into the approaching storm . Marsh Godsalls crew did not respond to a signal sent about 1 hour after it took off and has never been heard of since.In March 1944 he and his crew fought a pitched battle over the Bay of Biscay with a Sqdn of Ju88 which had shot down another 461 Aircraft flown by Tim Bunce DFC (aged 19 years at the time.) Both pilots and crews survived and were decorated for their efforts on that day. Godsall ,Bunce and my father had trained together in Australis ,had travelled to England via America and the Queen Mary and had been selected for operational duty to 461 Sqdrn together.The were very close friends Godsall was at the time 28 years of age and a practising Solicitor and took the two 18 year olds under his wing The offical RAAF version of events was that Godsall and crew were bounced by enemy fighters .The view of their mates was ,and is ,that this was rubbish .461 Sqdn was an elite Squdron trained in the latest radar and radio altimeter technology to interdict submarines and other surface vessels at night and attack them using flares. My father did this ,(apparently for the first time ) on the night of the 8th/9th June 1944 190 miles off Brest and the D-Day beachead and received the DFC for his efforts (aged 20 years at the time )Vince MacCauley states with total conviction that in usual circumstances German fighters , would not have got within 20 miles of Godsalls aircraft without been detected He maintains that the loss of Godsall was caused by the intense low pressure weather system that they flew into.461 Sunderlands were equipped with a normal aneroid altimeter and a radio alitermeter .He recalls the night as flying into a tornado in pitch darkness lightning and extreme turbulance such that the crew ,who had flown hundreds of hours over the Bay of Biscay and the Alantic were “awash in their own vomit “He says that he left the bridge to check on the crew and as he stepped back onto the flight deck he felt a slight tug on the aircraft .He immediately lent foward over the shoulder of the pilot and turned on the radio altimeter which showed the aircrafts height at 85 feet above the surface of the water not the 1000 feet showing on the standard altimeter. From his position behind the pilot he grabbed the controls and the throttles pulled the controls back and the throttles full on and flew the aircraft out of the North Sea He maintains that Marsh Godsall did not get the chance to fly out of the water and most probably crashed into the sea during the storm as he had not relied on his radio altimeter as he was not familiar withthe local weather conditions .461 Sqdn crews were adept at calibrating the radio altimeters but were trained to use them during attacks on submarines as their depth charges had to be dropped from exactly 200 feet Other members of Marsh Godsalls crew were close friends with the survivring 461 Sqdn members MY father is one of the last surviving member of the Squadron , now aged 86 and has never talked of his wartime expirences and losses .However his silence and the loss of my name sake Marsh Godsall prompted me some ten years ago to “find out what happened “Having read the RAAF version I was lucky enough to attend a 461/10 Squadron RAAF reunion and met my fathers crew and others who gave me this information. When he was lost Marsh Godsall was married and had a 3 year old daughter Kerry who I found living in America.We are good friends .She knew nothing of her fathers war history. She and her children are now very proud of him. By way of coincidence George Toose family lives nearby me and on the fifith anniversary of his loss placed a memorial plaque on his fathers grave at their local cemeretary. At the time of his loss he was engaged to be married ,his then fiance attended the ceremony I also met Henry Turnbulls sister who lives in Melbourne
.I was the first person to tell the family the fate of their son and brother …fifty five years after the event. My research shows that 12 /Z26 operated Me 110 from Herdla in September and October 1944 however I have been unable to find any German records of an attack on a Sunderlsand at that time Could the person who claims that Marsh Godsalls aircraft was shot down please contact me so that the crews many family and friends minds can be put at ease Marshall Sheehan