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This story is submitted to the People’s War site by a member of Market Harborough Branch, Royal British Legion on behalf of Mark Hudson, now Chairman of that Branch and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Hudson fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

The Foxton Crash
By Mark Hudson

The story starts with a Branch member, Stan Woofenden’s long-standing interest in a wartime crash near the local village of Foxton. Over the years he had obtained a good deal of information about the plane, its mission and the names of its seven crew members, six of whom were Australian, but he was anxious to contact any surviving relatives or comrades. Could the Internet help?

A message circulated on the Legion Electronic Mailing List, yielded several replies expressing interest, offering suggestions or asking for help with respondents’ own quests, but no real leads. I put an appeal on the Branch website but again no leads….. until this e-mail from Australia . . .

"This aircraft was piloted by my wife’s brother F/O Colin Richardson. He was with 630 Sqd. based at East Kirkby, Lincolnshire.

Over the years we had understood the aircraft crashed at Folkestone. Prior to a visit to the UK in June of this year I got interested in finding more details and went for a search on the net and came across … quite a bit of information identifying the crash site as Foxton, Leicestershire. Foxton and Folkestone don't sound all that different when you come from the other side of the world.

During June (2000) we visited Foxton and met Rev. Ian Johnston, a kind and compassionate man who showed my wife, Nan and myself, the site of the crash and the site of the airfield that was 14OTU on Foxton Moor. Since returning we received a touching letter from Ian which I will answer. He gave us a book "The Foxton Story" by Derek Lewin which mentioned ND949. I was disappointed to read that he stated that Pilot error could be the cause of the crash and that they were approaching runway 3.

After Foxton we visited East Kirkby the home base of 630 Sqd. Back in London I went to the Public Records at Kew and obtained copies of the Operations Record for 8/9 April 1945 for both East Kirkby and 14OTU. The entry for 14OTU stated that there was no contact with the aircraft prior to the crash. We have obtained a copy of the crash from the RAF Museum. This states "aircraft returning from operations was diverted to another airfield. Aircraft acknowledged diversion and while proceeding to diversion airfield aircraft flew into the ground". The findings of the inquiry were "that the cause of the accident was due to the wireless operator in failing to receive diversion by wireless". The base commander did not accept this finding. "AOC this command considers accident due to Error in Judgement on behalf of the pilot". I understand this type of a decision occurred often when all the crew are killed.

I am writing to Air Historical Branch (RAF) asking for more details, mainly to determine the name and location of the diversion airfield. I was led to believe that it may have been 14 OTU at Foxton and I am sure Colin would not have attempted a landing without obtaining permission to land from the tower and checking his altimeter for the height of the airfield or changes to the barometric pressure. In Colin's time in the RAAF he had made 340 night landings in Cranes, Oxfords, Wellingtons and Lancasters including 16 months as an instructor at 15(P) AFU and he had some 1310 flying hours in his logbook. It is interesting to note that East Kirkby was 40ft above sea level while 14 OTU was 400ft above sea level. I will let you know any details I can find out from Air Historical Branch (RAF).

Colin's name is on the Honour Roll at Plymouth and his name is also in the records of the War Graves Commission. I was told at East Kirkby that Australia would not permit the release of the names of next of kin to protect the family. Other countries permit the release of these details. I have photos of the graves of the four crew members buried at Botley. They are together in a group at the front of the cemetery.

If you would like more details re F/O C. Richardson please let me know. He joined the RAAF in October 1941, received his wings at 10 SFTS Duphin, Manitoba in September 1942, then he went to the UK.

By the way I bumped into your web page when I entered Lutzkendorf into the Yahoo search engine trying to find out where the target was in Germany. I didn’t find the answer but I did find your site.
Regards, Clive Henderson
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What we did not know then, was that some Foxton residents had also been trying to trace the relatives and had decided to erect a memorial in honour of those killed.
On 9th April 2002, the 57th anniversary of the crash, George Fleming, our Standard Bearer and I represented the Branch at the unveiling ceremony of the Memorial Plaque, at which relatives of the crew and a representative of the Australian High Commission were present. It was a great pleasure to be able to speak to the pilot’s brother-in-law who had contact me through the web site with the above e-mail.

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