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This story has been submitted to the People鈥檚 War-web site by CSV Action Desk Volunteer Frank Bagley on behalf of D.R. Woodward with his permission. He fully understands the terms and conditions of the web-site

The Long Wait
May 9th 1940 10-30am

My age 20 years, here I am after being called to serve my country in the armed forces, standing on Coventry railway station to catch a train to RAF Cardington, my father was with me to see me off with a 鈥淕ood luck son, take care鈥�.
I was serving an apprenticeship to become an electrical engineer with still 18 months to go.
Arriving at RAF Cardington where once the airship R101 was housed, getting my service number first 1151435 A/C Dennis Woodward was now the property of the RAF.
After having plenty of needles stuck into me and hours of square bashing now at Morcambe, I was posted to RAF Catterick to join 41 Fighter Squadron of Spitfires. I stayed with them through the battle of Britain.
On November 1st 1940 I was posted to Henlow to 14 School of Technical Electrical Aircraft training.
After passing this course I had a weeks leave in which my new posting arrived, I was to report to 210 Operations Training Unit (O.T.U.) Moreton-in-Marsh as an Aircraftsman Group 2 Electrician.
This was now February 28th 1941.
By September 10th I had risen to the rank of LAC (Leading Aircraftsman) Group one Electrician. In the same month R.A.F. Edgehill, satellite to Moreton-in-Marsh was made operational and I was included in an advance party of tradesmen, a nucleus for a maintenance flight.
February 6th 1942 after doing our daily aircraft inspections, myself and A/C Les Whyte, also a electrician, were sent out at approx 14-00hrs, to check the tail light of a Wellington Bomber parked on the end of the main runway dispersal point.
By 14-45hrs I was standing on the top of a pair of trestles to reach the tail light, suddenly I heard the sound of a high revving engine, my mate Les, shouting and pointing to the north. For a split second I could not believe what I was seeing, a Wellington bomber at a height of two to three hundred feet bearing down in our direction with no port propeller. In a matter of seconds it was past us and getting lower.
The plane was now heading for a line of Poplar trees approx half to three quarters of a mile away, it hit the Poplar鈥檚 which turned him on to his back and it fell into a small valley out of our sight, but we heard it hit the ground. A puff of smoke was seen. My mate Les and I pushed through two hedge rows and rushed towards the crash.
As we breasted the rise into the valley a terrific explosion greeted us and there was the Wellington a massive inferno upside down, the rear end standing on its tail. I saw someone half lying on the ground close to the tail, the rear gun turret doors were open, I thought it must be the rear gunner. We dashed forward with explosions going on all the time and dragged him back another twenty yards, he had a nasty head wound which I dressed with my field dressing which we always had.
By this time other RAF personnel were arriving, I told Les my mate to go back up the rise to see if our station ambulance was around because it could not get down to were we where and to send the medics down.
It seemed ages before they arrived and we carried our victim and put him in the ambulance and I went with him back to our sick bay, not knowing who he was. I returned to the crash site to be greeted with 鈥淭hey are all dead鈥�.
My mate Les and I returned to our tail light problem which turned out to need no more than a replacement bulb.
I never found out who this airman was who we had helped in this crash. The years have passed and shortly after my wife passed away in June 1992 I learned that a gentleman who lived close to Shennington Aerodrome had written a book about the drome and in it he described the crash of a Wellington Bomber on the 6th February 1942.
Wellington 1c R1047, crashed on a training flight after losing a propeller, there were no survivors. When I told him there was one survivor who I had helped, we came to the conclusion that his injuries must have been worse than we had realised and he must have died.
Three of the dead crew were buried in Moreton-in-Marsh, one in Windsor, one in Ireland and one in Yorkshire. For some reason we decided that the one buried in Yorkshire was private and five of the crew buried in Military cemeteries. That was 990574 Sgt. D.H.Tyne W/OP Gunner RAF VR was our missing airman, not knowing at this time there was seven crew members.
This was the end of our story or so we thought.
On the evening of June 4th 2003 I received a telephone call from a lady who lived in Bolton and she told me that Sgt. D.H. Tyne was her uncle and that her mother was Sgt. Tyne鈥檚 sister who was still alive at the age of 84 years. The family had always wondered where the crash had happened. All they knew it was a place called Shennington.
Via many phone calls they got in touch with the Wellington Museum at Moreton-in-Marsh. They put them in touch with the gentleman who wrote the book about Shennington who then put them in touch with me.
The lady who rang me from Bolton asked me to have a word with her mother, about the crash as she was rather desperate to know where her brother had died.
The next evening this lady who lived at Kingston-on-Thames rang me, during our conversation she told me that her parents (also Sgt. Tyne鈥檚 parents) had received a letter from a Sgt. Moore (Sgt. Tyne鈥檚 best friend in the RAF) to say how sorry he was about Sgt. Tyne鈥檚 death and that Sgt. Butler the rear gunner was the only survivor, and that how lucky he was.
Can you imagine how I felt after all this time to know that the airman I had helped survived.
I imeadiatly wrote to the RAF records department to see if they could help me find this Sgt. Butler. They sent me the following list of airmen in the crash.
Sergeant R.C. Butler 631835 Air Gunner.
Sergeant W. Gorman 908675 W/Op Air Gunner.
Sergeant R.K.R. Talbot 937589 Pilot.
Sergeant A.E. Jackels 931904 Air Observer.
Sergeant D.H. Tyne 990574 W/OP Air Gunner.
Sergeant Anderson R83108 Pilot Instructor.
Sergeant W.E.G. Taylor R80890 Pilot.
The only survivor of the crash Sergeant Reginald Colston Butler 631835, born 1918, served between 1939-1946. The only address they have of him was when he left the RAF, but RAF rules and regulations say 鈥淭hey cannot supply me with this address鈥�.
To think after 61 years from February 6th 1942 to June 4th 2003 I now know his name, Reginald Colston Butler.
Tuesday 21st October 2003 we met the lady from Bolton and her mother from Henley-on-Thames at Shennington Village and took them on a prearranged tour of what is left of Shennington drome, with a final visit to the crash site. I must say this dear Lady from Henly-on-Thames then 84 years old was quite overcome when I stood her as near as I could on the crash site where her brother was killed. Like myself she had waited 61 years.
I have tried very hard to find my missing airman, Sgt. Reginald Colston Butler. I found and contacted five airmen by the name of Reginald Colston Butler, but with no luck. Just maybe my mission one day may be complete.
115435 L.A.C D.R. Woodward.

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