WW2 RAF squadron crashes

[Flakdodger]

Hello celiabz,
I appreciate your main aim is to identify the crash site. Nettleham Field Farm might be as precise as you could get without local memory.
two ideas to assist you...
Make contact with the local aviation archaeology group, here is a link:
http://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/popiOrgVenue.asp?oid=275
this will give you a contact e-mail and phone number
Also contact the RAF Museum:
research@rafmuseum.org
ask for the Air Ministry Form 1180 for Wellington BK305 and quote the date of the crash. This might show the most precise crash location in official records.
You know Stanislaw Kaminski's resting place along with his crew mates.
A cemetery photo can be found at The Commonwealth War Graves Commission site http://www.cwgc.org/ and search under cemeteries for Newark on Trent.
Running out of room - further post follows this.

Dave

[Flakdodger]

Hello again,
I seemed to have run out of space in the text box on the previous post...
Are you aware of the occupants of the Wellington?
Warrant Officer Edward Szafran
Sergeant Stanislaw Kaminski
Sergeant Julian Kramarz
accompanying them where soldiers Sergeant A Dabrowski and Corporal T Kukurowski
The Squadron diaries of Polish air Force Squadrons have been summarised, and for this incident you might like to go to:
http://orb.polishaf.pl/300sqn/1943/1943-02-no-300-squadron-f540 where you will see that the aircraft was aloft on an air test [local flight following maintence/upgrade] such flights did not require a full crew and were often the opportunity for chums to hitch a ride [strictly against regulations, of course].
Kramarz appears to have been the subject of a forum thread at [url][http://www.mysliwcy.pl/forum/watki.php?id=1021&ustaw=pt/url]
Good luck with your quest,
Dave

[celiabz]

Dear Flakdodger (Dave),

Most of the information you kindly offered I did have already because I began researching this all over a decade ago via the MOD and at Kew, but new things turn up on-line month by month. The internet is such a treasure trove nowadays, but can be dangerous if you don't check primary sources too. I suppose I'm lucky that my original research came before stuff was "out there" and has been confirmed by other web-sites.

So, very many thanks for the leads you have suggested.

Over the years I have seen the information publicly available on 300 Squadron links but was worried about naming others, wasn't sure of the ethics of that. There were family conversations about the two who shouldn't have been there in the Wellington but they were often in a "don't tell the children" hushed tone.

I had almost given up on taking this thread any further until another link (with someone who was a pilot) made me think again of other ways of moving on. Then the Channel 4 programme about 303 Squadron last week made me even more determined to locate the crash site, as a matter of respect, if it's possible.

I visit a family grave in Suffolk every few years so a detour through Lincolnshire would be manageable one day.

I will check all the leads you have suggested.
Thanks for your time and careful thoughts,
Again, Celia

[celiabz]

Great news came for me today.
My thanks to all who made so many positive suggestions.

The LARG group secretary has written back to me with a map produced by a colleague that has the exact location of the 1943 crash, in the middle of the ring road (A15/A46) in Lincolnshire due south of Riseholme, not in Nettleham itself but between Riseholme and Lincoln Roads.

It a place where a tribute will be laid one day by someone in the family I'm sure.

All good wishes, Celia

[Flakdodger]

Celia,
that is great news. Very pleased for you.
Dave   

[beady]

Hi
I contacted the RAF Museum at Hendon and they provided me with a copy of the aircraft accident card ( Form A M 1180). This has the place of crash -- for my case, 700 yds East of Airfield.
Although I knew from the inquest that the crash was at a place called Franklins Farm, Ivy Lane, Coningsby, I have now narrowed it down.
Don't forget that, unless it is vertical, most crashes cover a very large area,so in wartime, they would just give an approximation and not an exact grid ref to 6 figures.
Barry

[celiabz]

I have also e-mailed the RAF Museum but have received no reply yet. Hopefully they will respond. Maybe I should write a letter on paper too?
I did mention the Air Ministry form 1180 because Flakdodger had identified it to help me.
LARG responded quite quickly and I was very grateful for that.

I was not aware that there may have been an inquest for this crash, were all subjected to one?

[beady]

Hi Celia
Don't know if they all had an inquest, but worth a check- again, local paper and coroners office of crash area.
Barry

[celiabz]

Thanks Barry, I'll certainly give those a try too.
My sister's father had been on several bombing raids - and had survived hand injuries he sustained. So to die on a routine flight, not on operations, is very sad. Celia