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Cole, Saxon Millis (Flight Lieutenant)

Killed in Flying Accident 1945-June-15

Birth Date: 1913 (age 32)

Norman & Katherine Cole

Peggy Cole, of Ottawa.

Home: Ottawa, Ontario (parents)

Service
RCAF
Unit
232 Sqn- Squadron (RAF)
Strike
Base
RAF Holmsley South
Rank
Flight Lieutenant
Marshal
Air Chief MarshalA/C/M
Air MarshalA/M
Air Vice MarshalA/V/M
Air CommodoreA/C
Group CaptainG/C
Wing CommanderW/C
Squadron LeaderS/L
Flight LieutenantF/L
Flying OfficerF/O
Pilot OfficerP/O
Warrant Officer 1st ClassWO1
Warrant Officer 2nd ClassWO2
Flight SergeantFS
SergeantSGT
CorporalCPL
Senior AircraftmanSAC
Leading AircraftmanLAC
Aircraftman 1st ClassAC1
Aircraftman 2nd ClassAC2
Position
Pilot
Service Numbers
C/12677

Took off at 07:20 from Holmsley South in Liberator C Mk IX (Sqn code C-IX Bomber Command) on an operation to Castel Benito, near Tripoli Libya.

At 07:45 after crossing the coast the aircraft reported a loss of fuel pressure and that the crew were turning back to Holmsley South.

Aircraft was seen crossing the coast in low cloud, too low to pass over coastal hills.

Aircraft crashed in Polar Wood with no survivors.

Rescuers to the site found a scene of total desolation with the 27 victims and their belongings strewn everywhere.

Killed - crew includes Cole: Flying Officer Donald Angus Twaddle RCAF co-pilot J/40840 KIFA Brookwood Military Cemetery grave 61. B. 7. Flying Officer Joseph Craig Todd RCAF nav J/40382 KIFA Brookwood Military Cemetery grave 61. B. 8. Flying Officer George Everett McPherson RCAF Wireless Air Gunner J/38603 KIFA New Albany Cemetery, NY, Wilbanks Div. Lot 25. Sergeant George Frederick Wyke RAF FE KIFA All Saints Churchyard Speke, Sec. A. Grave 40.

killed, passengers: Cpl. William Herbert Berry RAF KIFA Sts. Peter And Paul Church, Aston, North of church. LAC Arthur Blackburn RAF KIFA Windhill Methodist Cemetery Sec. L. L. Grave 214. LAC Ronald Branker RAF KIFA All Saints Churchyard, Paston, Grave D.15. Cpl. David James Brown RAF KIFA St. Laurence Church, Northfield, Grave X.9. Cpl. Albert Ernest Deveson RAF KIFA St. Giles Churchyard, Kingston. Cpl. Douglas Walter Ellis RAF KIFA Haycombe Cemetery, Bath, Plot 39. Sec. H. Row D. Grave 262. LAC Harrell Goldsworthy Evans RAF KIFA Reading Cemetery Div. 31. Grave 123. LAC Aneurin Glyndwr George RAF KIFA Pen-Cae Chapelyard, S.W. of chapel. LAC Frederick Douglas Harrington RAF KIFA Weston Mill Cemetery, Plymouth Sec. B. Cons. Grave 19075. LAC Leonard Edward Hildrow RAF KIFA Haycombe Cemetery, Bath, Plot 39. Sec. H. Row D. Grave 261. LAC Kenneth Wilkinson Kilbank RAF KIFA All Hallows New Cemetery, Kirkburton, Grave 84. Cpl. Leonard George Mason RAF KIFA Durham Road Cemetery, Stockton-On-Tees Sec. L.1. C. of E. Row N. Joint grave 35. Cpl. Mark Moses RAF KIFA Gelderd Road English Hebrew Cemetery, Leeds, Row B.L. Grave 1. LAC George Parr RAF KIFA St. Nicholas' Church, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Sec. K. Grave 246. Cpl. Donald Leslie Pratt RAF KIFA Thornton Garden Of Rest, Sec. A. Grave 511. Cpl. William Frederick Stanley Riley RAF KIFA St Lawrence Church, Northfield, Grave G.G.9. Cpl. Charles Frederick Venables RAF KIFA City Of London Cemetery And Crematorium Screen Wall. Square 241. Coll. grave 108030. LAC Ronald Williams RAF KIFA Haycombe Cemetery, Bath, Plot 39. Sec. H. Row E. Grave 261. LAC Leslie Williamson RAF KIFA Saltwell Cemetery , Div. C. Grave 2515. LAC Dennis William Wright RAF KIFA St. Luke Churchyard, Duston, East of Church. LAC Frederick Stanley Yates RAF KIFA Haycombe Cemetery, Bath, Plot 39. Sec. H. Row E. Grave 262.

Canada Source Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Canada Primary Source Library and Archives Canada Service Files (may not exist)

Home
Google MapOttawa, Ontario (parents)
Burial
Google MapBrookwood Military Cemetery
grave 61 B 6

Liberator JT985

Consolidated Liberator B-24 / F-7

(DND Photos via James Craik) (Source Harold A Skaarup Web Page)
Consolidated Liberator G.R. Mk. VIII, RCAF (Serial No. 11130) ex-USAAF Consolidated (Vultee) B-24L Liberator USAAF (44-50154)
ex-RAF (Serial No. 5009), ex-Indian Air Force (Serial No. HE773).
Currently preserved in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum Ottawa Ontario.

The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber flown by the RCAF during the Second Word War. It was designed with a shoulder-mounted, high aspect ratio Davis wing which gave the Liberator a high cruise speed, long range and the ability to carry a heavy bomb load. Early RAF Liberators were the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean as a matter of routine. In comparison with its contemporaries the B-24 was relatively difficult to fly and had poor low speed performance; it also had a lower ceiling compared with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Of the roughly 18,500 B-24s built in the USA during the war, 148 were flown by the RCAF on long range anti-submarine patrols, with the B-24 serving an instrumental role in closing the Mid-Atlantic gap in the Battle of the Atlantic. The RCAF also flew a few B-24s post war as transports.

Roughly half of all (RAF) Liberator crews in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theatre were Canadian by the end of the war. John Muir of Vancouver flew the longest mission of the war: 24hrs, 10mins from Ceylon to Burma and back. (Kyle Hood) Harold Skaarup web page


YouTube Liberator bomber

Wkikpedia Wikipedia Liberator bomber

General Harold A Skaarup Web Page

last update: 2021-09-18 19:06:22

Liberator C lX JT985



Consolidated Liberator JT985

The Dorset Echo, January 2021

Dorset's worst ever aeroplane crash, and another fatal aircraft accident that happened within 25 yards of it, are remembered with a Purbeck Stone memorial seat.

The two tragedies took place on North Hill above Encombe in Purbeck.

On the morning of Friday June 15 1945, with the war still raging in the Far East, Liberator JT985 of No 232 Squadron took off from RAF Holmsley South in the New Forest, on the first leg of its long flight to Palam, India.

The first refuelling stop was scheduled to be at RAF Castel Benito, near Tripoli in North Africa.

This Liberator was a passenger-carrying 'RY-3' (US designation) variant, with passenger accommodation in the former bomb bay area as well as within the main fuselage, and was distinguished easily from the twin tail fin bomber variants so well known with Coastal Command and the USAAF by it single large tailfin.

It was unarmed. The aircraft was under the command of Flt Lt Saxon Cole RCAF; other crew members were Fg Off Donald Twaddle RCAF (co-pilot), Fg Off Joseph Todd RCAF (navigator), Fg Off George McPherson RCAF (radio officer [and an American citizen]) and Sergeant George Wyke RAF (flight engineer).

The passenger load consisted not of VIPs, as was the more normal load for such a flight, but of 22 airmen being sent out as urgently needed groundcrew at Palam.

The weather at Holmsley South was poor, but both the captain and the duty executive officer considered it suitable for take off, but poor enough for a diversion to be likely if an early return was necessitated. JT985 departed at 0720 hours.

At 0745 hours, shortly after crossing the coast outbound, the aircraft reported a loss of fuel pressure.

At around 0815 hours the owner of Encombe House, Sir Ernest Scott, and a worker at Encombe dairy saw the aircraft, which was obviously below the height of the hills, and both knew instinctively that it was going to crash.

It impacted on the edge of what is now the Dorset Coastal Path, the wings were ripped off and the engines detached and were thrown forward towards Orchard Hill Farm, one wing coming to rest on the footpath (not a public footpath) in Polar Wood leading from the top of the ridge to the farm. There were no survivors.

The first to reach the scene were an RAF sergeant by the name of Reginald Reynolds, who was staying at Encombe House, and members of an Army searchlight battery located between the farm and the village of Kingston; they were soon joined by RAF personnel from, presumably, nearby RAF Worth Matravers.

The National Fire Service from Swanage was soon on the scene, as were local police officers.

When the low cloud lifted at about eleven o'clock a scene of total devastation was revealed.

The tragic remains of 27 bodies was joined by much in the way of personal belongings such as a baby's photograph, playing cards, personal notebooks, wallets and the like, together with a distinguished flying cross, thrown from its box but which was also retrieved.

The bodies of the crash victims were eventually taken away to Poole Mortuary. This was, and still is, Dorset's worst ever air crash.

© Canadian Warplane Heritage 2024

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