Plane crash

Plane Crash lands near Brandon

Here follows a rather sad tale of the demise of an RAF aircrew involved in a crash near Brandon just five days before the start of the Second World War. Due to the fact that war had not yet started there were no restrictions on media reporting of the inquest that followed the crash and here follows a rather frank account taken from local newspapers.

RAF Sergeant Anthony Frederick Adrian Freeman, who had been in the RAF for seven months, died of wounds sustained after the aircraft he was travelling in crash-landed into some trees on Forestry Commission land at Botany Bay, just inside the Norfolk border, a mile outside of Brandon, Suffolk on the evening of Tuesday 29th August 1939. Two days later an inquest was held to help discover what had led to the airman’s death.

Mr Thomas Wilson (Coroner for the Liberty of Bury St. Edmunds) oversaw the inquest, with evidence given from the dead man’s fellow aircrew and eyewitnesses from the ground. Also in attendance was a jury and from the Police, Inspector Grainger, Sgt Reeve and PC Churchyard.

The crew were:
Pilot - Flying Officer Francis William Scott Turner,
Co-Pilot - Sergeant Horace James Weller,
Wireless Operator - Aircraftsman 2nd Class John Gerard Hoey,
Aircraftsman 2nd Class Cecil George Barker.
Pilot Officer Thomas Watson,
Rear Gunner -Acting Sergeant Anthony Frederick Adrian Freeman,

Flying-Officer Francis William Scott Turner, pilot, told the Coroner that just before 5pm on Tuesday evening their bomber took off on a search for a missing aircraft. Everything seemed fine for an hour or so until the port engine caught fire and he immediately carried out the procedure for ‘fire in the air’ and prepared for a crash landing two or three miles north-east of Brandon. He then instructed the co-pilot, Sergeant Weller, to retrieve Pilot Officer Watson from the nose of the aircraft and to bring him to amidships, after which he told the rest of the crew to sit down and hang on. The aircraft then crash-landed amongst some trees.

Turner then told the inquest, “I picked up Pilot Officer Watson and told him to get out as quickly as possible. I looked out and was then told that Freeman was still in the machine. Walking across the wing and getting back into the machine again through a hatch, I found Freeman on his knees against a step formed by a bomb nacelle. We did not think it was advisable to move him until medical assistance had arrived. The fire had gone out by this time.”

Turner then told the Coroner that Freeman should have stayed where he was – it was the safest place in the aircraft and because of the location of his body he must have moved away from his seating position. The dead man’s father was at the inquest and asked the pilot if his son had been thrown from his seat rather than having moved away from it. Turner replied that the back of the seat had been lowered as though Freeman had attempted to release himself from his rear turret position. Turner then told a jury member that they were too low to use parachutes.

Co-Pilot Weller told the inquest that the aircraft developed oil failure in the port engine near North Walsham and they managed to maintain a height of 600 or 700 feet on just the starboard engine. When they saw the trees get near they all sat down and hung on to the inside of the aircraft. Weller then told that before the impact he had been talking to Hoey and had assumed that Freeman was still in the tail. After the crash he went to the tail section to assist Freeman but when he had looked through the rear window he could not seen him. It was only as he began to walk back along the aircraft that he caught sight of Freeman’s head on top of a step.

Weller told the Coroner it was possible that Weller had tried to get out of his seat too early and as he was doing so the impact had thrown him forward. In the tail section there was a celluloid hatch, which he could have cut away to get out. The tail was the safest place.

Aircraftsman 2nd Class Cecil Barker said that he had changed places with Freeman during the flight, but was amidships on impact and he had caught sight of Freeman turning around to face them all and had assumed he had been trying to get out.

At this point of the inquest the Coroner Wilson said, “There is a natural tendency, particularly in the case of a young fellow like this, for him to get with someone for whom he feels will give him moral support in the time of emergency. I can understand that and I am sure the jury does.”

Aircraftsman 2nd Class John Hoey told the inquiry that he had sent out a wireless message just before impact.

From the Norfolk Constabulary Police Constable Churchyard, based at Weeting, gave evidence that the aircraft had come down 10 feet on top of some pine trees and 350 yards from the Weeting-Brandon road, cutting a swathe in the ground of 30 yards by 60 yards. The crew and himself had removed the tail section of the aircraft to remove the deceased and the body had gone by ambulance to Mildenhall.

Local Weeting resident, Mrs Mary Jane Leonard, had looked out of her bungalow window and had seen the aircraft pass low with smoke trailing from the back of it, accompanied by a crackling noise from an engine. It then disappeared from her view and was followed by a crash sound. She then stopped a passing car and told the occupants to go for the Police.

RAF Medical Officer, Dr Jenkins told the inquiry that Freeman’s death was caused by broken ribs perforating his lung.

Coroner Wilson then extended his sympathy to the dead man’s family, who had travelled from Croydon, London. He went on, “I have said it before, unfortunately that we who are not in any arm of the Service owe a great debt of gratitude to these men who take risks that we may live in peace.”

The foreman of the jury gave the jury’s verdict, which was Death By Misadventure. He also said that the jury had felt that the crew had done their very best under the circumstances. The Coroner then thanked the jury foreman for his kind words.

The father of the deceased then said a few words in which he thanked his son’s colleagues and the RAF Medical Officer.

After the inquest the surviving men would have gone onto active duty and duly entered into the war with the RAF. Not much is known of their fate although Pilot Francis William Scott Turner did become Squadron Leader in the course of the war and earned himself a Distinguished Flying Cross. In 1940 his Wellington bomber was crippled by French AA fire and he and his crew had to bale out near the French-Belgium border, but they managed to get back to England. While flying with the 76th Squadron he was killed four years later on 22nd September 1943 when his Halifax bomber crashed near Verden. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission also lists a Pilot Officer Thomas Watson (97 squadron) being killed on 26th November 1943, although it is unsure whether this is the same man involved in the crash at Brandon.

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