Stirling LK488

[htbrst]

Hi Guys,

While surfing the internet I found this interesting item on ebay :

Short Stirling Rear Gun Turret

this rear gun turret is from the Mickle Fell Stirling wich crashed in 1944. it struck the back bone of the Mickle Fell the highest part of the Peninnes. This aircraft a Short Stirling MK 111. R.A.F.Number L.K.488

Became airbourne at 23.15 hours on the 18. october 1944,at about 01.00 hours on the 19 the aircraft struck the backbone of the Mickle Fell, out of the seven New Zealand airmen that boarded the aircraft at Wratting Common, in Cambridgeshire only one survived, Allen Small the rear gunner who was flung from the wreckage and lived.

Crew Names. Pilot Flight Sergeant Peter Young. who came from Castor Bay, Auckland.

Navigator was F/S.Neil Burgess from Cambridge, near Hamilton, in the front F.N.5 turret was F/S.Jack Stack from Wellington. F/S. Rex Furey. from Oeo. was the Wireless-Operator, in the dorsal turret sat F/S.George Child from Blockhouse Bay, Auckland. flight engineer Sergeant Bert Davies from London.

in the rear turret was Alan Small from Takaka, South Island. this itam is the remains of Alan Smalls rear turret, wich is quite unique.

cgi.ebay.co.uk/Short-Stirling-rear-gun-turret_W0QQitemZ200271865723QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item200271865723&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1301|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

There seems to be quite a few sites on the internet with details of the crash. (e.g. www.allenby.info/aircraft/planes/dales/lk488.html)

The story of the rear gunners survival seems to be enough of a story in itself, but I thought you would all be interested given the kiwi nature of the crew.

Are there any extant Stirling bits in NZ?... given the RNZAF flew these beasts and NZ crew of this individual aircraft this would could make a great addition

[Dave Homewood]

Thank you htbrst,

This is new to me and now I will do some research into Neil Burgess from Cambridge. There are still members of the Burgess family in town here.

Thanks again,
Dave

[fwx]

A bit late to the discussion, but it turns out that this crash has great significance to my uncle's story.

At No 3 Wireless School in Winnipeg, Manitoba (23 March - 25 September 1943) my uncle (Gerry Newey) was in the same class as Rex Furey, who by coincidence came from Okaiawa, the same tiny Taranaki dairy-farming area that Gerry was born in. Another mate in that class was Ernest Armstrong from Geraldine, South Canterbury.

After graduating they were posted to No. 2 Bombing and Gunnery School, RCAF, Mossbank, Saskatchewan (1 October - 21 November 1943 ).

This photo of Gerry, Rex and Ernest would have been taken after graduation from 2BAGS, but before shipping out to England, wearing their new Wireless Operator-Air Gunner brevets and Sergeant’s stripes:



Gerry's hand-written caption tells the sad story – before he had finished his training in the UK, both his mates had been killed – Rex on his final training flight, and Ernest on one of his first op’s.


F/S Rex Patrick Furey, NZ428189 R.N.Z.A.F. Wireless Operator, age 21.

18/19 October 1944: Stirling III LK488, QQ-E, 1651 Heavy Conversion Unit RAF Wratting Common, low-level cross country navigation exercise, their last training flight before being posted to an operational squadron. Off-track and in poor visibility (widespread fog) collided with the top of Mickle Fell (some seven miles ENE of Appleby-in-Westmoreland). Rear Gunner W/O Alan G Small of Takaka, New Zealand, was the only survivor.

F/S Ernest Robert Armstrong, NZ427084, R.N.Z.A.F. Wireless Operator, age 20.

16/17 November 1944: 214 Sqdn Flying Fortress Mark II HB787 BU-J Crashed on returning to RAF Foulsham. 214 Sqdn was engaged in radio counter-measures (detection and jamming of enemy radio and radar equipment).

Meanwhile Gerry had crewed up at an OTU, and was at 1657 Heavy Conversion Unit, Stradishall training on Stirlings, when Rex was lost.

Gerry's skipper was Johnny Wood from Auckland, and it was only recently that I tried to identify individuals in photos taken during Johnny's training at Taieri and Wigram, in particular his best mate (going by the number of times he appears in Johnny's photos) - below left, Johnny at right.



I found a list of Johnny's Wigram "wings" graduation class in a newspaper article, and a session on Google pulled up an AWMM Cenotaph listing and (luckily!) a matching photo of Peter Dawbarn Young. Subsequent searches on that name led to a Stirling crash in England ...

It was a shock when the penny dropped, that Johnny's best mate was the pilot of Stirling LK488!

So Gerry and his skipper Johnny both had good mates killed in the same crash - what are the odds of that happening?? And what impact would that news have had on Johnny and Gerry and the crew when they found out?

I'm now in touch with a UK researcher who visited the crash site in the 1970s before the RAF Museum removed the wreckage for storage, and who established contact with Alan Small, the rear gunner and only survivor, before he died in 1994. Alan's son visited him in England and got to see and hold his father's machine gun!

It's a small world ...

Cheers, Chris

[arf]

Hi ..I've just returned from mickle fell crashsite lk488....also I've been to the cemetery in Harrogate to pay my respects to the 6 crew killed ..I have photos of all if interested..
Thanx mark

[fwx]

Yes please!!