Weather-Inflicted Air Accidents In The RAF

Hi all,

I’m trying to assemble a representative list of accidents during WW2 where entire formations of aircraft got into trouble due to extreme weather conditions. I would appreciate anyone’s help to identify more similar cases.

From the British perspective, I have so far identified three cases involving the Spitfire units:

1. The ill-fated Morlaix mission of 26 September 1942, involving the entire No. 133 (Eagle) Squadron on Spitfires Mk. IX. Flying over the complete cloud cover throughout the mission, the pilots didn’t notice the presence of extreme high-altitude wind. Expecting to land back in Cornwall on their return route, the formation found itself over Brest, where 10 Spitfires were shot down by flak.

2. An accident of 15 March 1942 involving No. 317 (Polish) Squadron. Returning from an escort to five bombers over the French coast in search of shipping, the formation descended into 10/10 cloud which stretched down to 200 feet. The cloud made it impossible to land at their own base, nor at the alternative landing grounds. The visibility became so bad that the aircraft lost sight of each other in the cloud. In fact one pilot F/O Koc with the aid of instruments flew over the drome at 20 feet but was still unable to see it. 10 out of 12 aircraft crash-landed in the vicinity of Bolthead, one pilot killed.

3. The third case, attributed by some to the weather, is the well-known 2 May 1943 interception mission of No. 1 wing RAAF in the Darwin area. The Japanese force counted some of 18 G4M bombers and 26 A6M Zeros. Some 33 Spitfires were scrambled, 5 having to abandon early due to technical failures – a constant plague of Spitfire operations in the area. During combat, five Spitfires were shot down. On the return leg of the mission, eight Spitfires were forced to land through engine failure or shortage of fuel. The official communiques of the time blamed high winds for the aircraft not reaching their base, but contemporary researchers tend to agree that the wind phenomenon was invented for propaganda purposes to rationalize the scale of own losses in that mission.

As I mentioned, any comments on these, or especially, additional similar cases would be greatly appreciated.