"The Mystery"
Distinguished Flying Cross
RETRIEVED FROM THE CRASH OF
Liberator JT985
(No. 232 Squadron RAF)
which took off from RAF Holmsley South, Dorset
Friday 15th June 1945.
INCLUDING:
(a) THE ORIGINAL NEWPAPER CUTTING (Daily Mail Saturday 16th June 1945)
& ORIGINAL R.A.F. DOCUMENTATION CONCERNING THE CRASH & THE D.F.C. FIND.
(b) RAF DISCHARGE BOOK of 1823631 L.A.C. Gordon Frederick FINDLAY (10 Squadron) "Halifaxes"
Containing a permission and instruction by his Sergeant to retain the "found" DFC.
READS:
Relocation Notice G.R.S.
1823631 R.A.F.
'June 15th '45'
LAC G.F. FINDLAY
has permission to retain the D.F.C. medal found this day by myself until such time as it may be required to hand it back.
M. Evans Evans M. Sergt R.A.F.
A VERY UNUSUAL LOT of GREAT HISTORICAL INTEREST
"THE UNKNOWN D.F.C."
ON THE morning of Friday, June 15, 1945, with the war still raging in the Far East, Liberator JT985 of No 232 Squadron took off from RAF Holmsley South in the New Forest, on the first leg of its long flight to Palam, India. The first refuelling stop was scheduled to be at RAF Castel Benito, near Tripoli in North Africa.
This Liberator was a passenger-carrying RY-3' (US designation) variant, with passenger accommodation in the former bomb bay area as well as within the main fuselage, and was distinguished easily from the twin tail fin bomber variants so well known with Coastal Command and the USAAF by its single large tail fin. It was unarmed.
The aircraft was under the command of Flt Lt Saxon Cole RCAF; other crew members were Fg Off Donald Twaddle RCAF (co-pilot), Fg Off Joseph Todd RCAF (navigator), Fg Off George McPherson RCAF (radio officer and an American citizen) and Sgt George Wyke RAF (flight engineer). The passenger load consisted not of VIPs, as was the more normal load for such a flight, but of 22 airmen being sent out as urgently needed groundcrew at Palam.
The weather at Holmsley South was poor, but both the captain and the duty executive officer considered it suitable for take-off, but poor enough for a diversion to be likely if an early return was necessitated. JT985 departed at 0720 hours.
At 0745 hours, shortly after crossing the coast outbound, the aircraft reported a loss of fuel pressure and that the crew were turning back to carry out a precautionary landing at Holmsley South. This information was repeated again 10 minutes later.
At around 0815 hours the owner of Encombe House, Sir Ernest Scott, and a worker at Encombe dairy saw the aircraft, which was obviously below the height of the hills, and both knew instinctively that it was going to crash.
It impacted on the edge of what is now the Dorset Coastal Path, the wings were ripped off and the engines detached and were thrown forward towards Orchard Hill Farm, one wing coming to rest on the footpath (not a public footpath) in Polar Wood leading from the top of the ridge to the farm. There were no survivors.
The first to reach the scene were an RAF sergeant by the name of Reginald Reynolds, who was staying at Encombe House, and members of an Army searchlight battery located between the farm and the village of Kingston; they were soon joined by RAF personnel from, presumably, nearby RAF Worth Matravers. The National Fire Service from Swanage was soon on the scene, as were local police officers.
When the low cloud lifted at about eleven o'clock a scene of total devastation was revealed.
The tragic remains of 27 bodies was joined by much in the way of personal belongings such as a baby's photograph, playing cards, personal notebooks, wallets and the like, together with a Distinguished Flying Cross, thrown from its box but which was also retrieved.
Who did the DFC belong to? Not any of the crew or passengers, so maybe it was being taken to India for presentation to its owner?
There was also a large amount of tropical uniform items and, to the delight of the local children, tins of boiled sweets.
The bodies of the crash victims were eventually taken away to Poole Mortuary. This was, and still is, Dorset's worst ever air crash.
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A WONDERFUL RESEARCH PROJECT FOR THE KEEN AIR HISTORIAN OR RESEARCHER. MAYBE YOU CAN FIND OUT WHERE THIS D.F.C. WAS GOING TO IN INDIA ......Clearly someone on the aircraft (presumably one of the crew) knew that a fellow RAF officer serving at or near the crashed aircraft's destination (PALAM, INDIA) had won and been sent the DFC late in the war and was taking it for him on this flight. JUST WHO WAS THAT RECIPIENT ????
CASED D.F.C.
(*This may not be the actual DFC that was found, but as the actual medal was clearly not privately named and had no accompanying papers, one DFC is as good as another for this purpose.)
£2250