Dave,

The story actually begins a while earlier, during the summer of 1943 at St Eval, when 1404 Met Flight became 517 Squadron and began re-equipping with Halifaxes. Because of this 517 was unable to maintain its operational committment of twice-daily meteorological reconnaissance sorties to the southwest over Biscay (code-named EPICURE). Such was the importance of these flights that the Americans offered four B-17s of the USAAF 379th Bomb Squadron to make up the shortfall – adding another four aircraft later.

Initially these were detached to St Eval and operated to the west of the UK (code-named ALLAH), but during the autumn it was decided the American aircraft should operate from an American base – Bovingdon.

As the Americans had no aircrew trained in met observing the crews always flew with an RAF Meteorological Air Observer (MAO), and when the detachment returned to Bovingdon they were accompanied by seven MAOs under the command of Flt Lt H J J (John) Leigh-Clare.

Leigh-Clare was the MAO on 42-37744 when it crashed just outside the airfield boundary whilst departing for an ALLAH sortie on the evening of 9 December 1943.

The crash was witnessed by a ten year old boy, Roy Payne, and over the years he kept returning to the crash site, collecting small pieces of debris. Fortythree years after the accident (1976) he found two gold rings; one was a pilot’s ring inscribed with the name William Holcom, the other was a Bombadier’s ring inscribed with the intials HJ. 2nd Lt Holcomb was the co-pilot of 42-37744, and in 2003 Roy eventually traced the American’s family and returned the ring to them. My source is John Taylor, Holcomb’s nephew, who also wrote an account of his uncle’s life.

Which brings us to the second ring. The initials did not match those any of the American crew-members nor, as far as could be determined, any of those who dealt with the aftermath of the crash – which is where I come in.

Peter Davies (Resmorah) and myself have been compiling a Book of Remembrance for all the meteorologists who died during the war – one of whom was H J J Leigh-Clare – and John Taylor wondered if, somehow, the ring was his. I was in contact with one of Leigh-Clare’s cousins and made enquiries within the family. In the event it turned out there was no connection (there shouldn’t have been as Bombardier rings are American, but it was thought possible it might have been given him as a mark of respect), so there the story ends.

I hope your intrigue is satisfied.

Do you have anything on B-17F 42-30131, lost flying an ALLAH sortie on 3 February 1944?

Brian

B-17G (42-37744)

Dave,

No photos I’m afraid, but do you have anything on B-17G (42-37744) that crashed on take-off at 1856 hours on 9 December 1943? If not I might be able to help. It was the start of a weather reconnaissance flight and one of the crew was a British Met Air Observer, Flt Lt H H J (John) Leigh-Clare.

Brian

Met Halifax

Reference Keith’s post at 18.54 on 1 December, the missing Halifax was 202 Squadron’s ST807. It disappeared near 55N 12W whilst on a routine met flight on 18 April 1947.

Brian

Estella,

I would be extremely interested in talking to you as I’m compiling a history of the RFC/RAF Meteorological Flights and THUM Flight. As I posted earlier in this thread they go back to February 1918 so they have a long history. I’ve been fortunate in tracing the son of the second OC of the 1918 RFC/RAF Met Flight so I have some unique photos from that time. Through the kindness of members of this forum I have some photos of the THUM Flight aircraft, but I’m always on the outlook for more information.

Perhaps you could email me off-board.

Oops, just realised my address is not on my profile, it’s monbrythATaolDOTcom

Brian

I’m sorry Creaking Door, but that statement ‘According to the British Meteorological Office “D-day should be within one day before, to four days after a full moon” is a load of total rubbish. Do you really believe that the Met Office would have any say in one of the greatest military operations in history?

The parameters for the invasion were decided by the military planners taking into consideration the varying needs of the Army, Royal Navy and RAF. Military considerations meant that the operation could only be undertaken in summer during a period of new or full moon, and a low tide at dawn (to facilitate the safe landing of troops). Militarily the ideal conditions were a sequence of four quiet fine days, small amounts of cloud below 8000 ft, visibility of 3+ miles and an on-shore wind not exceeding force 3 (8-12 mph). Of the three summer months, May, June and July, the greatest probability of those conditions occurring was found to be in June. On that basis, coupled with the moon phase, was 5 June chosen as D-day.

In the event had the military been prepared May would have been the better option but, as it wasn’t, D-day had to be in June. As it happened early June 1944 was one of the stormiest on record. For practical reasons the final go/no-go decision had to be made two days before the preferred date for the invasion; on the evening of 3 June the forecast for the 5th was of stormy conditions, way outside the limits required, and the landing was postponed. It wasn’t until the following evening, 4th June, that the forecasters offered a brief window of opportunity in the forecast for 6th June; Eisenhower courageously took that opportunity – and the rest is history.

For the record on the next preferred date for a landing, in terms of moon phase, 18 June, the weather conditions were worse than at the beginning of the month.

Source (amongst others) “Forecast for Overlord; June 6 1944” by J M Stagg. (pub: Ian Allan)

Although Deryck says the night of 5/6 June was not a moonlit night, there was a full moon that night, moonrise being at 1834 GMT on 5th and moonset at 0404 GMT on 6th – the unfortunate thing is that it was at times obscured by cloud. The importance of the moon was not so much as the light it provided for an airborne landing, but the influence it had on the tide.

Brian