19 February 1945 107 OTU Dakota III TS436 Search Farm, 2'/2 miles north-west Zeal’s The aircraft was assigned to the Glider Pick-Up Training Flt, whose role was to train crews in the 'snatch take-off method for retrieving gliders. Those on board were mostly returning to their base in Leicester, on completion of the course of instruction at Zeal’s. The aircraft took off at 1523 hours in conditions of broken cloud, with some patches down to 100 feet and generally overcast, a westerly wind at 10 mph and visibility of 1 to 2 miles at ground level. The pilot made a quarter circuit of the airfield and then set course to the north-east. Three minutes later whilst flying in and out of the broken cloud and whilst in level flight, the aircraft flew into a clump of 60 foot tall beech trees on top of a knoll. The impact ripped 10 feet off the port wing and the aircraft rolled to port, hit two more trees and then impaled itself on a cluster of four mature trees, caught fire and disintegrated, scattering wreckage over a distance of 300 yards on the far side of the knoll. Destruction of the aircraft was complete but investigation revealed the engines to have been at a high power setting on impact. The Accident Report, published on 17 May 45, suggests that the pilot who was the sole survivor, had failed to climb to a safe height when flying in poor visibility, although the knoll was a well known obstruction in close proximity to the airfield. The tragic sequel to this loss is that the pilot, who had been awarded the DFC for his gallantry on operations, followed a restless career afterwards leaving and returning to the RAF until finally joining the Foreign Service and being appointed an Assistant District Officer. While on assignment in Kenya, he committed suicide. The twenty killed. Flight Lieutenant Reed Tilton HYDE 33 RCAF Flying Officer James Cassells HOWDEN 29 RCAF Pilot Flying Officer Gerard Jean GUAY 24 RCAF Wireless Operator Flying Officer Mervyn Esmond Llewellyn SCOVELL 33 RCAF Navigator Flight Sergeant Alan Geoffrey SHADDICK 20 RAAF Pilot Flight Sergeant John Ogilvy ALLEN 21 RAAF Wireless Operator Flight Sergeant Leslie Daniel SLIPPER 21 Pilot Flight Lieutenant Thomas Arthur EVANS 23 Pilot Flight Lieutenant Alan James ROBERTS 23 Pilot Flying Officer Sidney Graham WILLIAMS Navigator Flight Sergeant Donald GRANT 21 Navigator Flight Sergeant Maxwell Vernon GILDER Flight Sergeant James ROSS 24 Flight Engineer Flight Sergeant Ronald Edward JELFS 23 Flight Engineer Flight Lieutenant Douglas Elliott TURNBULL 23 Wireless Operator Flight Lieutenant John HEYWOOD Equipment Officer Corporal Kenneth Stanley ANDERSON Aircraftman 2nd Class Reginald Ernest SUGGARS Aircraftman 2nd Class Walter James COLBY 44 Flight Lieutenant Frank Joseph PLANT 27 Navigator. Zeals airfield To the north of Zeals village, next to the village of Stourton and the Stourhead estate is the site of the former RAF Zeals, also known as HMS Hummingbird and RNAS Zeals. The site operated between May 1942 and June 1946, and during this short time was occupied by the Royal Air Force, the United States Air Force and the Royal Navy. Until August 1943 the site was used by the RAF as a base for Hurricanes and Spitfires. The site was taken over in August 1943 by the United States Army Air Force whose initial plan was to use the airfield for maintenance of C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft. However, the damp conditions prevented heavy loads so P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft were flown from Zeals instead. From March 1944 the airfield returned to the RAF who used it as a base to launch Mosquito fighter planes against incoming German bombers. Following D-Day, the RAF used the airfield for glider training in preparation for action against Japan, and in April 1945 the airfield was taken over by the Royal Navy base at HMS Heron who used the airfield for aircraft carrier training. The site was closed down from January 1946 and in June it was returned to farmland. As of 2006, the control tower, now a private house, remains on Bells Lane in Zeals. A memorial stands at nearby Beech Knoll in Stourton to mark the site where a Dakota transport plane crashed in February 1945, killing more than twenty people. The plane had taken off from Zeals airfield to return to Lincolnshire after two weeks of glider training and flew into some cloud-covered beech trees on the knoll. | CommuniGate | Beech Knoll, Zeals
To have been Pilot and sole survivor, it must have weighed very heavily on him until he could take it no longer. Very Tragic tale. Regards Tom
Thanks for posting Peter. Such a tragic loss of personnel and understandably something that remaind with the pilot all those years after. Must have been very hard to cope with. Regards Robert.
Hi Joanna and welcome to the forum. Can you tell us anything about your fathers cousin or post any pictures you may have of him. Regards Andy
My Dad's cousin was James Cassells' new bride. She missed him her whole life. She never knew how he died. She even went to (I think it was) Burma to find out what happened to him - this is where she thought he was missing in action. It is a sad story, and sad that she never knew. And so sad that your Dad's cousin blamed himself. I really hope there is a heaven.
