Lockheed Hudson, AM885, Kinnagh, Wexford, 1943
Nine old tattered pages are all that is contained in the Irish Army archive report on the crash of a british aircraft near Ballyculllane in County Wexford, Ireland on the 16th of September 1943. Three airmen from the Allied airforces lost their lives in this little known crash.
The authorities recorded after the event that at about 15:15 on the afternoon of Saturday, the 16th, an aircraft crashed into a field in the townland of Kinnagh. Local gardai and members of the Local Defence Force (LDF) were first to the scene and they reported back to the Irish Army coastal fort at Duncannon. The owner of the field was one Moses O'Neill. Sadly, no aid could be brough to the occupants of the aircraft as it had been completely destroyed in the crash. The wreckage had caught fire and the aircraft was comsumed by the fire. The military party from the 1st Field Company based at Duncannon could do no more than gather up the wreckage and return it to the fort for disposal.
Before this however, those present had the sad task of recovering from the wreckage the remains of those on board. Upon arrival the Irish army party had immediatly found the remains of two men. Despite the fire which burned on into the evening, these two bodies were recovered and another was then found under the the aircraft. From these bodies some letters were recovered and it was possible to identify two of the airmen provisionally. It was beleived they were
R/131724 F/Sgt. Chabara, A.J.,, R.A.F., Lyneham
657975 Sgt. J. Colhoun, R.A.F., Station, Lyneham, Wilts
Part of a typed report in the Army file records: "The number of the plane was given as P.8825. It was a twin engined one and the MIlitary Officer who went to the scene thought it was a "Beaufighter".
Afterwards I learned that it was a Hudson Bomber."
The report goes on to say:"The Command O.C. [Officer Commanding] gave instructions that Officer quality coffins should be procured and the bodies conveyed to the Border on the 17th instant. Duncannon reported that they would be procured in Waterford.
This report was sent by Commandant D Mackey of the G2, Army Intelligence Section in Curragh Command. He goes on in his concluding paragraphs:
I had a phone call from Comdt. Quinn at 10.00 hrs. on the 17th inst. informing me that an Official from the British Office would call to the Curragh later and go to Duncannon and that he would probably send an officer with him. The Officer from Baldonnel with the British representative called to headquarter, Curragh at 13:15 hours ad proceeded after an interview with me to Duncannon Fort.
Capt. O'Toole proceeded with the bodies from Duncannon Fort to Dundalk at 14.20 hrs. on the 17th inst. The adjutant, Eastern Command was notified accordingly so that the arrangements for handing over at the Border could be completed.
It was also arranged that the handing over of personal papers etc. would take place at the same time.
Further hand written notes in the file indicate that Capt. P. O'Sullivan and F.Lt Moore of the RAF did visit the scene on the morning of the 17th of September. The remains of the aircraft were such that the Irish Air Corps indicated no interest in salvage and what could be removed was taken to Fort Duncannon for disposal. And thus the sad affair ended.
The aircraft had been recorded in the hour prior to the crash flying around the south coast of Ireland, it was belived to be heard by Gardai at Skibbereen in Cork, flying south, and then by the Irish Coastwatching Service Look Out Post (LOP) at Toe Head, the Garda stations at Cobh and Whitegate flying overland on the east coast of Cork Harbour, where they beleived it turned south and was next heard by the LOP's at Ballycotton and Hook Head moving North East. Little mention is made of the weather conditions in the offcially filed reports and memo's from Irish sources but it should be perhaps noted that the aircraft was 'heard' by the Gardai and LOP's personel, rathers than sighted. In June 1945 following the end of the war, the local Wexfor dnewspaper, the New Ross Standard, ran a short article about this crash and the loss of an Anson in the same year. This article begins, "On Thursday, 16th Sept., 1943, a a day on which visibility was very bad, a British aeroplane crashed at Kinnagh, in a field adjoining the main Wexford-Duncannon road. There were three occupants and all were killed."
It goes on to mention the names of the two men identified and that the third man, who coudl not be named at the time had 'objects of pioty' in his possesion which indicated he was Catholic. An inquest was held by the Coroner for South Wexford, Mr F M O'Connor with evidence from Capt. Coughlan of the Irish Army and Dr. Toohill both from Duncannon. No reason for the mens deaths could be arrived at by this civil court but it was assumed that mechanical defect of fuel starvation caused the crash. The three men were registered dead in the New Ross registration district following this inquest, their names being recorded as, 'J Male Colhoun'; 'A J (Male) Chaloner' and the final member simply as 'Male'.
And so what of the three men, their names could finally be confirmed by the Uk authorities and we can easily find their names now using the Commonwealth War Grave Commishion website, www.cwgc.org. The crew consisted of a Scottish pilot, a Welsh navigator and a Canadian radio operator, airgunner. The details of the crew can be confirmed from the Royal Canadian Air Force service record of F/Sgt A J Chabara.
Among the records in F/Sgt Chabara service file are copies of telegrams sent in the immediate aftermath of the crash and an Air Ministry Form 765, 'Report on Flying Accident or Forced landing not attributable to enemy action'. These provide the background to the fligth that ended so tradgically in Kinnagh.
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| F/Sgt John COLHOUN 657975 +, Pilot | F/Sgt Pryce OWEN 655407 + Navigator | F/Sgt Alexander James CHABARRA R/131724 + RCAF |
John Colhoun came from Paisley in Scotland, the son of of Patrick and Margaret Theresa Colhoun. His remains were returned to his parents and are buried in Paisley Hawkhead Cemetery. He was a 1939 Graduate of the University of Glasgow. Little else is known about John. He is buried with his parents in the plot in Paisley. He may have had a brother name Michael who passed away in 1969.
Pryce Owen was the third airman from the crew, the man who whose name could not be identified by the Irish authorities. His remains were returned to his mother for burial in the local Penygroes Cemetery, Llanllyfni, Caernarvon. A local resident was kind enough to visit his grave in 2006 and provided the words from the headstone inscription, which reads:
In Treasured memory of
our dear son
Flight Sergent Pryce Owen
12 Maes Dulyn Penygroes
who lost his life over Ireland
Sept 16 1943 aged 23 years
Only those who know are able to tell
How sad is the parting without a farewell
A letter sent to his sister in 2006 was replied to by his nephew the late Judge M Farmer from Wales. He was aware of the crash and told of a local man from Wexford who wrote to Sgt Owen's family. Sadly, his nephew has since passed away before any furhter information could be exchanged or a photo obtained.
F/Sgt Alexander James CHABARA was the final member of the crew of Hudson AM855. Son of Nick and Rose Chabara, he came from Vilna, Alberta, Canada and small village founded only in 1907 during the buiding of railways lines. He worked from 1935 to 1940 as a clerk and later manager in a general store in East Coulee, Alberta. He enlisted in the Air Force on 19 September 1941 and began his training early in 1942 in Canada. He attended numbers 2 Wireless School in calgary and 7 Bombing and Gunnery School in Paulson, Manitoba. He shipped out to Europe in March 1943 and was posted to number 1 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit ((C)OTU) in June 1943. This unit was based at RAF Thornaby in Yorkshire. The three airmen may have formed a new training crew at this location and may have been in training together to form a future frontline crew together. His service file lists a posting dated 18th August 1943 to RAF Lyneham from 1 (C) OTU. A J Chabara was laid to rest in the cemetery in Eglantine, County Down in Northern Ireland.
The documents relating to the crash in F/Sgt Chabara's file in Canada indicate that the aircraft they were flying, Lockheed Hudson serial number AM885 was assigned to number 301 Ferry Training Unit, based at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire. RAF Lyneham had become in 1943 a headquarters base for RAF Transport Command and very important center for the management of aircraft being sent overseas to the Medditerean for example. The reason for the flight of Am885 on the 16th of September is listed as being a non operational, daytime, consumption test. This mission type points to the aircraft and crew preparing for a ferry flight from the UK to perhaps Gibralter in the weeks ahead. By this stage in the war, the Lockheed Hudson had been largely replaced as a front line aircraft in RAF Coastal Command for patrols in the Atlantic. It was however used in the Mediterranean extensivly into 1944. It is possible that the crew of AM885 might have been posted overseas had they not crashed in Wexford.
Due to teh complete destruction of the aircraft and the fact that the crash occured in neutral Irish territory, the contents of the AM885 report are extremely limited. Where one might normally find some peice of narative in the Sections 10 to 13, one only finds the statements, 'None available - Pilot Killed',Not available - crash occured in neutral terrirtory' etc.
