Hi All,
For those as yet unaware of the above project, it started with a
casual remark in one of our Wednesday meetings about the two plane crashes
on top of the Bwlch during WWII.
It may well turn out to be one of the major articles of Journal 2001 with
Harry Radcliffe and Ken James taking the lead writing roles with research
help from many other Society (and non Society) members.
From the first remark that the planes were thought to have been a
Spitfire
and an Avro Anson crashing in Jan 1942/3, with a Polish(?) crew, we know
now
the following...........
The crash date was Sunday 07th Jan 1940.
The first plane to crash was a Hawker Hurricane, followed and hour and a
quarter later by a Lockheed Hudson.
All 6 aircrew were killed and all were English.
We have full deatils of both aircraft and the names of the aircrew, though
it`s possible the "Polish" confusion arose as two members of the Hudson crew
were Civilians testing what would have been Top Secret Radar equipment.
We have the CWGC Site infomation on all the Military crew and have locations
for their graves, I have e-mailed various County Mailing Lists and
Local/Family History sites to try and obtain more info on any of the
Aircrew.
We photographs of the Hurricane Pilots grave which is situated in the
military Section of Boverton Cemtery near Llantwit Major, actually just at
the end of one of the St. Athan runways............We also have obtained the
death certificates of all 6 aircrew from Bridgend registry office which are
complete with the coroners findings from the inquest.
Both planes were flying out of RAF St. Athan, though the Hudson was attached
from 233 Squadron based at that time in RAF Leuchars (Scotland).
As well as the article we are hopeful that we will be able to erect some
sort of monument to these men and to that end have already strated the ball
rolling with the Local County Council.
We have had a lot of assistance from an Afan Valley resident, one Mr. Steve
JONES who has not only furnished us with a lot of informtion but has also
very kindly donated to the Society the front front ortion of the Hawker
Hurricane found at the crash scene a number of years ago.
Those fortunate to be able to attend the next meeting on the 16th Jan will
see the first *draft* of what the memorial may look like.........I can
e-mail a Microsoft Powerpoint File of this to anyone
interested............We would at this stage welcome any/all ideas and
suggestions as to where to site the proposed memorial and indeed what it
should look like and from what materials to construct it...........You can
either send your ideas/thoughts to me or preferably via this list, though
you won`t be able to send any attachments to this list the Robot at Rootsweb
would strip them off............
I will of course keep you all updated on this very worthwhile project.
Regards
Huw
Ogmore Valley, Thurlow & Glamorgan Administrator
HuwDaniel(a)telinco.co.uk
I use Archive CD Books to help with my research
http://www.archivecdbooks.com