Incident at RAF Snaith 1943

Welcome Ronk.

Do you have any of your uncles photographs you would like to share with us.

Cheers

Ben

Welcome Ronk.

Do stick around.

Moggy

LV 937

My uncle, Flt Lt Richard (Dick) Kemp DFC was the pilot of this aircraft when it returned after completing its 100.

Many thanks everyone and especially to Icare9 for the fascinating additional info. via your contact, who was flying from Snaith in wartime.

Please pass on our regards and gratitude to him.

Wicked Willip: :diablo:

jettisoning: Thanks for catching that typo, my contact hasn’t got a scanner and typed it out in full himself, not bad for 87! It makes the remark “….MH-H, DT 724, a fairly new aircraft,….” even more significant as the batch started with DT720. So both DT722 and DT724 were “fairly new aircraft, hence the sudden appearance of the problem introducing these American manufactured parts.
I’m now off to the Biaggi thread to check on the serial there in case there is a relationship with faulty bomb releases!

RAF Snaith is a great place to visit today.

raf snaith 1943

i’m not sure about the reference to ‘a much more significant incident’ in the last post relating to the bomb control equipment failures in feb 1943 .

in the june incident i reckon at least TEN groundcrew died – much more significant in human terms and more destructive too in damage / destruction of airfield facilities .

however both incidents do illustrate the dangers of general service in wartime RAF .

there was a slight error (typographical ?) in the extract from ‘Snaith Days’ – the Halifax in question was DT722 – not DH722 .

Thank you for sharing this. I am enjoying hearing some local history and will look into getting the above mentioned book in the future.

Ben

Ahem….. I have a contact who was flying from Snaith shortly after the bomb dump explosion. I contacted him to see if he knew what the MiD was for. This is his reply..

Kevin, I was scanning through the book that I mentioned and came upon a much more significant incident. It is in Chapter 10, p.163 of “Snaith Days”. under the heading “Bug in Bomb Selector”. On the 13th. Feb. 1943 the aircraft were bombed up ready for an op against Lorient and over on B flight the crew were standing around their aircraft having a last minute chat. The Bomb Aimer of Sgt. Rawcliffe’s crew told his skipper that he was going to make a last minute check of the bomb circuitry and nipped into their aircraft, DH722, MH-M. After his checks he came out and stood with his crew who were talking with the crew of MH-V parked on the next dispersal. At approximately 1730 hrs. blue smoke was observed coming from the bomb bay, The Bomb Aimer re-entered the aircraft to rescue the two pigeons and shouted to everyone to take cover since an explosion was likely as the fire was in the bomb bay. There were a couple of “erks” working on the wings of the aircraft who realising the danger they were in, took running jumps off the wings at about ten feet off the ground and fled for cover. The aircrews decided that discretion was the better part of valour, headed for a nearby wooded area and lay flat upon the grass.

Flying Control, were alerted and a convoy consisting of the C.O. W/C “Tom” Sawyer in his Hillman car, the Fire Crash Tender and an Ambulance sped across the airfield. At the dispersal, the C.O. realised that the fire was uncontainable and gave instructions to abandon the aircraft. The fire raged on and an explosion occurred. The burnt out aircraft eventually collapsed in the middle. At approx 1800 hrs. a similar incident occurred on the other side of the airfield on “A” Flight. The C.O. ordered the convoy to drive over to “A” Flight but the Fire Tender crew were unable to start their vehicle !

Over on “A” Flight, the Bomb Aimer had checked his equipment on MH-H, DT 724, a fairly new aircraft, captained by P/O Rawlings which was standing on the dispersal with it’s bomb doors open. Then, on connecting up the batteries, suddenly a bunch of incendiaries fell upon the hard standing, Being nose heavy they fell so that the nose hit the ground and ignited immediately. At first the Armourers tried to kick them out of the way but had to stop because they contained a percentage of X type explosive incendiaries. Appreciating the danger of the situation, Cpl. Simms, the Armourer in charge of the team warned everyone to evacuate the dispersal. They all ran about 60 yards and threw themselves into the nearest dugout. The bomb load was 3×1,000lb HE’s plus loads of incendiaries and one of the HE bombs went off scattering the remainder of the load onto the airfield. The 5 armourers hid in the dug out, peering out at the burning aircraft until the bomb exploded and one of them, R. Carter, reported that his ears “rang” for a considerable period afterwards. The aircraft continued to burn eventually collapsing in the middle. A tail unit from the bomb went through the roof onto an unoccupied bunk in one of the barrack huts and a large hole was blasted into the dispersal. The Squadrons operations were cancelled for the night.
The Sqdn. Electrical Engineering Officer was obviously very concerned about these mishaps and instructed his Section to carry out a full investigation. The aircraft concerned were newly arrived on the Sqdn. and were fitted with some American made bomb controls which were found to contain drilling “swarf” produced during the manufacturing process. The effect of this swarf was to produce a short circuit in the Selector Unit so that when set on “Safe” it released the bombs prematurely. All Units on the Bomb Control Panels on new aircraft were examined for the possibility of this “swarf” and no further incidents were recorded. Several Airmen suffered degrees of burns and some were M.I.D. for their bravery.

I feel that the fact that P.O Rawlings was mentioned was the proof that your fposter’s Uncle was present at the dispersal and that this incident…completely unrelated to the later Bomb Dump one was what he was injured in and then M.I.D.

Elementary, my Dear Watson! I suggest that you “post” this intact in the Forum concerned and quote the Book that it came from …
It would seem that these wiring incidents would have been a more likely source for the MiD.

So there you have it….. Snaith Days, available on Amazon and from the 51 Sqn Assocn!! Hope this helps (Thanks, Reg!!)

The only major incident that fits the bill in 1943 was the bomb dump explosion. I seem to recall that I did find something on a web site about it, perhaps a Snaith related site for more details.

Wilip26,

You have a PM

exmpa

One of my uncles was awarded an MID,the recipient wore a small bronze ‘oak leaf’ over left breast or on a medal ribbon.
Just in case you didnt know Willip.

link to image

http://www.gg.ca/honours/hon/01/index_e.asp

edit …I know it is canadian but ours were identical

Regards BV

Mentions in Dispatches

Thanks jettisoning

I know very little about ‘mentions in dispatches’ and what they were awarded for, but in the absence of any other more definite information, that incident may well fit the bill.

Wicked Willip :diablo:

incident at snaith 1943

could the following be relevant ?

saturday 19 june 1943

ops le creusot

huge explosion in the snaith bomb dump area

clearing up the site took about a month and a number of armourers were ‘mentioned in despatches’ .

the bomb dump itself was redesigned