My next-door neighbour has just been telling me a tale from 1942 or 43. As a boy he lived on the edge of St.Alban’s and was a keen aero modeller. Playing outside one day he saw a collision between two Mosquitos from Hatfield, one of which he thinks was piloted by Cunningham. He says that he saw one crew member, presumably Cunningham bale out. One of the aircraft came down close to the village of Smallford and he says that he and a friend dashed there as quickly as possible before the crash team could get there so that they could snaffle some balsa wood for modelling.(!!!) Does that ring a bell anywhere?
Jim
By: Arabella-Cox - 4th March 2013 at 12:23
I’ve just seen my neighbour, Gordon Smith, and he says that he was walking north so the aircraft must have been travelling roughly in an East/West direction.
Re the name of the hospital: he says that it was called Hill End before the war but changed its name during the war when it was taken over by St. Barts in London for the duration,
Jim
By: Arabella-Cox - 2nd March 2013 at 12:00
He said it was definitely a head on collision when I spoke to him last. I’ll ask about directions when i speak to him again,
Jim
As far as the hospital goes he said that he used to deliver newspapers to the soldiers there.
By: DC Page - 1st March 2013 at 19:58
I’ve just seen my neighbour again and he says that he heard a Mosquito very loudly, looked up at it and, as far as he remembers, saw a second aircraft come out from clouds and crash into it. He also says that a wheel came down and lodged in a tree near where he was standing, stayed there for a few seconds and then dislodged, ending up where he would have been if he hadn’t stopped, so he must have been pretty close. He also says it was near ??St. Bartholomew’s Hospital which had been a mental hospital pre-war but was being used to treat wounded soldiers at the time,
Jim
Jim, does he remember anything about what directions the aircraft were flying in relation to each other? Was it a head-on impact?
By: 91Regal - 1st March 2013 at 19:40
John and Geoffrey Jnr. are both commemorated in the churchyard of the village of Tewin, just outside Welwyn Garden City – the boys both lodged in the village for a while during the war, and had friends there.
The hospital referred to was probably Hill End rather than St. Barts – never heard that name applied to any hospital in the area. Hill End was one of a large cluster of Victorian/Edwardian asylums in the St. Albans area, used for convalescing injured during the war, amongst them Sir Archibald McIndoe’s ‘guinea pigs’.
By: Arabella-Cox - 1st March 2013 at 11:36
Interesting link T-21, thanks. Jim, is your neighbor’s description of the accident consistent with the one in T-21’s link? Did he witness a head-on collision? I’m just trying to understand how those 2 aircraft from the same location and flown by men who knew each other wound up heading straight at each other at the same altitude in cloudy conditions. And yet it would seem that those on the ground may have been able to see the accident coming.
Eyewitness account are notoriously unreliable and time often doesn’t help, but sometimes they are surprisingly accurate and I have no reason to doubt these accounts. Thanks
Cheers
I’ve just seen my neighbour again and he says that he heard a Mosquito very loudly, looked up at it and, as far as he remembers, saw a second aircraft come out from clouds and crash into it. He also says that a wheel came down and lodged in a tree near where he was standing, stayed there for a few seconds and then dislodged, ending up where he would have been if he hadn’t stopped, so he must have been pretty close. He also says it was near ??St. Bartholomew’s Hospital which had been a mental hospital pre-war but was being used to treat wounded soldiers at the time,
Jim
By: DC Page - 16th February 2013 at 23:00
Interesting link T-21, thanks. Jim, is your neighbor’s description of the accident consistent with the one in T-21’s link? Did he witness a head-on collision? I’m just trying to understand how those 2 aircraft from the same location and flown by men who knew each other wound up heading straight at each other at the same altitude in cloudy conditions. And yet it would seem that those on the ground may have been able to see the accident coming.
Eyewitness account are notoriously unreliable and time often doesn’t help, but sometimes they are surprisingly accurate and I have no reason to doubt these accounts. Thanks
Cheers
By: Arabella-Cox - 16th February 2013 at 22:05
Many thanks for that T-21; my friend will be most interested. He did mention that one of the de Havillands might have been involved,
Jim
By: T-21 - 16th February 2013 at 17:29
Hello Jim,
On Monday afternoon at 16.15 23 August 1943 Mosquitoes HX849-850 test flying in cloudy conditions collided between Hatfield and Salisbury Hall. All four men were killed wreckage falling at Hill End hospital grounds. Pilots were John De Havilland and George V. Gibbins and their observers G.J.Carter flight shed superintendent,and J.H.F. Scrope,an aerodynamicist. The collision occurred approx 2 miles SW of Hatfield.
Interesting piece here http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/66/a2015966.shtml
Sign In
February 16, 2013 at 12:29 pm