Here’s one of my attempts today, I was on the ridge to the SW of Fairholmes.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]231881[/ATTACH]

Yes, but the MoD can issue themselves a licence and get a contractor in to do the work, with the help of service personnel. That’s what happened here. And yes, it makes an absolute mockery of the licencing system.

Creaking… I recall reading the tail gunner’s account that the Duke himself was flying at the time of the crash and had announced he spotted something below and they were going down to investigate so presumably they saw what they considered might be a U-boat and dived through cloud thinking they were over water.

That is completely at odds with what he told the Court of Inquiry four days after the accident.

His statement was:
“I am an Air Gunner with No.228 Squadron. On Tuesday, 25th August, 1942, I was a member of the crew of aircraft W.4026 which was on passage from Invergordon to Iceland. We were airborne at about 1300 hours and the height of the cloud was about 500 feet. The Captain, Flight Lieutenant Goyen, who was flying the aircraft, told us there would be a lot of cloud around but he did not think it would last long. This was over the inter-com. I was in thr Rear Turret. As we proceeded the cloud came down thicker. I felt the aircraft losing height after about 20 minutes. The pilot was apparently trying to get under the cloud base. I do not remember anything after this.”

He was then asked the following questions:
Do you know who was navigating the aircraft? – I don’t know.
Did you hear anything else over the inter-com? – No.
Do you remember who in the 2nd Pilot’s seat? – No.
Did you think the aircraft climbed much before it started to come down again? – No, not much.
Was the last thing you can remember being in a cloud – Yes.

Before you do anything about conspiracies I’d suggest taking a look at the casualty file for the Australian victim of this crash, makes interesting reading, especially the copy of the Court of Inquiry.

Of the fifteen people on board fourteen were accounted for on the day of the crash by the local doctor who stated to the court of inquiry that on arrival at the crash site he had found eleven bodies scattered outside of the wreckage and three trapped within wreckage. Eleven + three being fourteen. He was unaware that there were fifteen on board the aircraft and so had no reason to continue the search beyond the crash site. The RAF didn’t go to the site until the following day as the weather had deteriorated by the time the Medical Officer from Wick had arrived and it was decided based on what he’d been told by the local Doctor that recovery on the day was ‘out of the question’, they arrived at the crash site at 07:00 the following day, around the same the survivor who had been missed the previous afternoon arrived in Berridale.

The briefed route took the aircraft close to the Helmsdale coast, given the prevailing weather conditions the odds of seeing the second tuning point (Clyth Ness lighthouse) were slim so it was a simple case of making the turn for Thurso too early and while still flying in cloud flew into the ground, having probably had a very near miss with the hill on the other side of the valley.

Mike,

I’ve been and had a look on the shelf and the follow up to ‘Looking into Hell’ is ‘To Hell and Back’.

It’s a while since I read it but I would recommend ‘Shot Down in Flames’ by Geoffrey Page.

Easiest way of getting in touch with Dave Stansfield is http://www.aviationarchaeology.org.uk/genct.htm and select Chairman from the Recipient menu.