"People who rescued three RAF officers from a burning plane when it crashed-landed in a Bristol park during World War II have been honoured.Relatives of those who risked their lives to save the crew of the Wellington bomber were at the service in St Andrews Park.

The crash, on 30 April 1941, was kept secret for national security reasons.
The memorial service, at 1230 BST, marked the first official acknowledgement of what happened.

Three of the six crew on the Wellington bomber were killed in the crash although the pilot, Hugh Houghton, now 88, survived."

Read more here:

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Bristol | City honours WWII plane rescuers

__________________


"If you want peace work for justice" -Pope Paul VI

Jon

blimey.. skip..martin .. any info on this mission would be great.. the effecting morale explanation is pretty weak at this stage of the war. whats the story here. anyone know...

No problem Urgh, Apparently the Welli got entangled in a wire after it got lost


Lever is buried in Liverpool
CWGC :: Casualty Details

Evans is buried in Bristol
CWGC :: Casualty Details

Clarke rests in Beeston
CWGC :: Casualty Details

__________________

thanks skip.. think i might have a look into this a bit. not my usual foray but the bbc explanation seems a little far fetched. was it normal to keep accidents secretive because of public morale or has the bbc report just gone a little off kiltter.

Actually, quite a lot of stuff was kept out of the newspapers at the time ( my Dad will still say to me 'Gosh - we never knew that...' )

Instances springing to mind without digging through books include the Fauld explosion ( the UK's biggest ), the Metfield bomb-dump explosion, B-17 crashes in Deenethorpe and Framlingham villages, the Blackburn Botha disaster in the middle of Blackpool, and so on......

__________________
"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

I understand that Martin and I dont do conspiracy theories...But that sort of thing was a quite major disaster...The loss of one aircraft on a training mission being kept secret according to the bbc of all people in that stage of the war is not the sort of thing that I would expect. Lancastria yes, a wellington no. But on looking at the guys web site...a good one too, I think its more probably gone astray..the story as well as the wellington rather than anything else. But the present day BBC stating that the story was with held for NATIONAL SECURITY reasons is a little bit over the top surely. And will invite further inquiry. The added fact that one of the pilots doesnt seem to remember what the mission purpose was doesnt exactly add to the normal accident theory either.