4. Lake Vyrnwy Wellington

At about 10.50 pm on May l4th 1943, Wellington Mk.III, serial X3785, took off from 27 OTU, Lichfield, for a night cross-country navigation exercise. The flight was to be from Lichfield to Rhyl, Isle of Man, Anglesey, Fishguard, Llangollen, Cannock Chase bombing range and return to Lichfield, one of the unit's standard training routes.

The pilot was FO. J W Robb of Glasgow, with over three hundred hours, twenty- nine on Wellingtons, ten of which were at night. The observer was Flying Officer TA Ley from Australia. The pupil navigator was PO. G H 'Billy' Cone of Suffolk. Sergeant A W Sayers from Kent was the air bomber. The WO/AG was Sgt G S Lee from Weston-Super-Mare and AG Sgt E L Clarke of Nottingham.

3 1/2 hours into the flight, on the Fishguard to Llangollen leg, an engine caught fire. The wireless operator tried to transmit a signal to Lichfield, but seconds later the Wellington hit a small hill near Lake Vyrnwy and exploded, killing all on board. Just before the crash, the aircraft was heard to be in trouble by local people, with one engine misfiring before bursting into flames. The Wellington dived steeply into the ground at 2.35am on May 15th.

Some men of the local Home Guard were the first at the scene but all that could be done was to remove the bodies and the personal belongings. None of the crew were wearing parachutes & it seems that they had been unable to reach them in time to bail out. On the other hand, Flying Officer Robb may have been trying to ditch the stricken aircraft, as the crash site is only 250 yards from the lake.

Just before crashing, the Wellington narrowly missed a farmhouse still occupied by a man who was six-years-old at the time. His mother, on hearing a low-flying aircraft, followed by an explosion, had thought that the Germans were trying to bomb the dam on the south side of the lake. She rushed outside to remove the white bed sheets from the washing line, thinking that enemy may have taken them to be some kind of signal. Mr. Evans also recalled his mother saying that after the Wellington's engines and guns had been taken away, most of the wreckage was left for many years. All that now remains on the wooded hillside are small pieces of wreckage at the Wellington's impact crater, which can now easily be passed unseen.

On August l8th 2002, the aircraft and crew were remembered by around seventy guests  at the "Tavern Inn" near the lake, where Rob presented a picture entitled "Before We Go", representing the crew of X3785 studying their charts before take-off.

The sounding of the Last Post was followed by a minute's silence and an address by the Reverend Dick Jones.

To complete the dedication, a Royal Air Force Tornado flew over the lake, dipping its wings at the spot where X3785 had fallen.

"Before We Go"