Lancaster, err Wellington wreck

Hi all,

I am back after the Eni Award conclusion.. 🙂

I have already started to write my tale. Regards!

Marco

One plane was seen smacking into a mountain, its explosion lighting up the terrain for other luckier crews who relied on this morbid illumination to avoid the same fate.

I wonder if this aircraft could have been LN466?

Susan (Shawn and Bill) welcome to the forum.

What a remarkable coincidence that you son is now living in Italy.

For anybody new to this thread Bill’s wartime service is the subject of this article from the January 2008 edition of the ‘Clarion Newsletter’:

Here is an account from 205 Group navigator Flight Lieutenant William (Bill) Turner RCAF that I found on the web:

Raid on Turin Ball Bearing Factory 24th November 1943:

“A pronounced cold front was very active over the area we were to traverse. It was hoped the front would weaken before we arrived at the Italian coast; but it grew more intense with winds 50-70 knots – this was not to helpful for an aircraft flying at 120 knots. We were blown off course and we were unable to get a specific pinpoint. We were confronted by masses of cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds. We couldn’t reach a higher altitude as our dear old Wimpy had troubles. We had to go below the cloud to try to get an accurate pinpoint to put us on the right course to the target.

We descended to a planned altitude of 3000 ft. I suddenly spotted a light that should not have been there. The WOP dropped a small flare and immediately lit up the ground below us revealing an Italian Villa with a marble statue in the garden. We were less than 300 ft, I anxiously told our Pilot to pull up and told the bomb aimer, who was in the nose of the craft, to drop our bomb load. We were just about blown to pieces by our own bombs. Our pilot (Eric) saw more than the rest of the crew – he never spoke the rest of the way home.

We then went down the coast of Sardinia. We saw two or three explosions, which were later, discovered as being crashed Wellingtons. We finally got a pinpoint and headed to our landing strip at El Oudna in Tunisia. The de-briefing was not a happy one – the losses were in the neighbourhood of 25% with very few aircraft reaching the target.”

www.unit302.ca/ClarionJanuary2008.pdf (Page 8)

This excellent account comes from the January 2008 edition of the ‘Clarion Newsletter’ from the Sidney Unit #302 website:

http://www.unit302.ca/

Bill Turner was there that night flying over Turin in his Wellington bomber

Hello Marco and others,

My Dad, Bill Turner, is 86 years old and doesn’t use computers, but on November 24th, 1943 he was sent on a mission to bomb a factory in Turin. He is Canadian, but was flying with the RAF Squadron 104. There were several Wellington bombers sent on that raid….7 or 8 squadrons with 7 or 8 bombers each. The weather was terrible. Eight of the planes on the mission didn’t make it back to base. None of the crews found their targets. One plane was seen smacking into a mountain, its explosion lighting up the terrain for other luckier crews who relied on this morbid illumination to avoid the same fate. Dad ended up dropping his bombs to reduce the weight of the plane, in order to get over the mountain and avoid a similar crash. For the past 60 years whenever he mentions that raid over Turin, it brings him to tears. It was a stormy night and he couldn’t see anything and he has always worried that he may have dropped his bombs on innocent people below. Because this bothered him so much, my son, Shawn Doyle has spent the last two years researching this episode, trying to find out if any bombs were reported falling and killing anybody that night anywhere around Turin. Shawn lives in Milan, Italy. If you want to learn more, Shawn’s email is [email]sdoyle@post.harvard.edu[/email]. (He speaks Italian). You can also phone Bill Turner in Canada at 1-250-655-0685. He has a fabulous memory of everything!

Bill Turner’s daughter, Susan Doyle