Shorts Sunderland, Crownarad Hill, Killybegs, Donegal, March 1945
Two short months before the end of the war, the second last fatal crash of the European war took place on a lonely hill side in County Donegal. The aircraft had been observed by the Gardai at Killybegs flying overhead, in a northerly direction, at low altitude and using a searchlight. This sighting was sometime after 02:00 hours on 14 March 1945. The Irish army subsequently reported it having crashed at 02:15 or 02:55. The location of the crash was in early reports described as Clane on top of Fintra Mountain. The first people to respond to the crash were members of the local police along with members of the Local Security Force (LSF) and the Local Defence Force (LDF), who reported getting to the crash site at 05:30 in the morning, the wreckage being found to be still burning. They had met one local man, George Morrow, from Fintra, that a plane had flown over him very low down near his house. Getting out of bed to look, he saw two flashes on the mountain nearby. A military party from Finner Camp also made it to the scene at an early stage after the crash. Early the next morning arrangements were made for members of the Irish Army Ordnance Corps to attend the scene and make safe some live weapons that had not been destroyed in the crash. At this early stage it was determined that there were no survivors at the crash site.
The members of the Ordnance Corps arrived that afternoon and promptly dealt with the two unexploded depth charges and the hundreds of rounds of machine gun bullets. Earlier in the morning the members of the Irish Army Medical Service from Finner Camp set about the sad task of recovering the remains of the dead crew men. The remains were taken to Finner Camp where they were placed in Coffins and assigned death certificates by a local doctor. Minutes of communications with the RAF and UK government in the Irish Army file show that the name and service numbers of the airmen were provided to the Irish authorities to assist in the identification process. The dead airmen along with whatever personal items as were found, were handed over at the Beleek border post at 16:00 hours on the 15th March.
The Irish Army left the site as there was nothing left of the aircraft that could be salvaged.
The remains of the 12 men were prepared for burial and some idea of the timing can be gathered from the Australian National Archives file of F/Lt Garrard. John Garrard's wife was informed that he was to be laid to rest in Irvinestown Cemetery, Fermanagh on the 21st March, 1945. While the dates of burial are not known at this time, the following six members of ML743's crew are buried in Irvinestown in a collective grave; F/O Cave, F/Sgt Davison, F/Sgt Frith, F/Lt Hatton, F/Lt Howkins and F/Sgt Kennedy. P/O Becker and F/Lt Garrard were identified and are buried in individual grave plots next to their six comrades. The four remaining men were returned to their native areas in the United Kingdom for burial. David Twist was returned to his family in Llanfair Caereinion in Wales. James McAvoy was buried in St Peters Catholic Cemetery, Glasgow. F/Sgt Ford was buried in Taunton and F/Sgt Robinson in Hucknall cemetery.
The crew of the aircraft were those airmen listed below:
 F/Lt Denis Ralph HATTON 129070 (Pilot) F/Lt Hatton came from Skegness in Lincolnshire. He was the son of Minnie F and Richard G Hatton. |
 P/O Robert Douglas Albert BECKER J/94373 + RCAF (Second Pilot), Son of George Albert and Jean Lindsay Becker, of Pouce Coupe, British Columbia, Canada |
 F/Sgt Stanley Bernard FRITH 1622351 (Pilot) Son of Bernard and Marjorie Frith, of Sheffield |
F/Lt Vivian HOWKINS 52705 (Navigator) Son of Arthur Edward and Ellen Howkins of Blaby; husband of Annie Howkins, of Ampleforth, Yorkshire |
 F/Lt John Percival GARRARD 410653 + RAAF (Navigator) Son of Richard and Elizabeth Garrard; husband of Dorothy Mabel Garrard, of Fairfield, Victoria, Australia. |
F/Sgt David John Thomas TWIST 1233231 (Flight Engineer) Son of Frank Millshamp Twist and Agnes Mary Twist, of Llanfair Caereinion |
 Sgt James MCAVOY 1569940 (FME/AG) Son of George and Mary Wales McAvoy, of Glasgow |
F/O Edward Norman CAVE 174865 (Wireless Operator) Son of Edward George and Florence Annie Cave; husband of Elsie Marion Cave, of Grays, Essex |
F/Sgt Norman DAVISON 1091488 (Wireless Operator Mechanic) Son of Robert Kelly Davison and Jane Davison, of West Hartlepool, Co. Durham |
 F/Sgt James George ROBINSON 1580143 (Air Gunner) Son of James Ernest and Annie Robinson; husband of Doreen Robinson, of Hucknall |
F/Sgt George Reginald KENNEDY 1257641 (Air Gunner) Son of Edward and Annie Maria Kennedy, of Hanwell, Middlesex |
 F/Sgt Frederick Nicholas George FORD 1587824 (Air Gunner) Son of Frederick and Elizabeth Ford, of Taunton |
If you might be a friend or relative of any of the men above and if you have a nice portrait image of any of the men above, I would be honoured if you could send a copy by email or other means and I will add it up. If by any chance you have any one of the men in a group shout it might be this crew and I would love to have all the faces at once.
The aircraft, Shorts Sunderland ML743 is recorded in detail on the Poole Museum website. It turned out that ML743 was adopted by that town as a result of donations made in the area towards purchase of aircraft. Click on the links below to see more about the aircraft:
The crash of ML743 was the subject of investigation by the RAF. No mechanical investigation is evident from the various reports available today including RAF Form 412 'Court of Inquiry or Investigation' and Form 765 'Report on Flying Accident or Forced Landing not Attributable to Enemy Action'. ML743 took off at 02:03 that night and was only half an hour into the patrol, flying from Lough Erne in County Fermanagh where she was based with the RAF's 201 Squadron. Her intended path was to fly out along the aerial corridor across neutral Irish territory, the famous 'Donegal Corridor', and out into Donegal Bay and thence to the North Atlantic. The mission that night was to fly an anti U-Boat patrol.
The investigations recorded in part: "(a) The aircraft left Lough Erne on a very dark night, cloud base around 1000' carrying full ops load which included 2050 gallons of petrol. After Flying Control had acknowledged the "airborne" call over R/T nothing further was heard from the aircraft by either R/T or W/T.
Witnesses in Killybegs saw the aircraft approaching from a South Easterly direction, with navigation, and apparently landing lights on. 2nd witness saw a/c alter course, still showing Nav. and landing light, and within 2 minutes heard the a/c crash. The evidence shows that the mountain top where the crash took place was covered in mist or cloud. The a/c completely disintegrated and was badly burnt, all 12 members of the crew being killed.
(b) The cause of the accident must remain obscure. From the evidence it would appear that the aircraft was under the control of the Pilot rather than the Navigator at the time immediately preceding the crash. The use of the landing light seems to indicate that the pilot was trying to pin point himself (or make a forced landing) in the opinion of this court the pilot and navigator did not know where they were - which presupposes that they S.E. was u/s or not being used. The fact that the a/c was on a course of 240 degrees when it crashed may indicate that the pilot realised that he was too far North, and was turning back towards the S.W.
The inquiry reports from late April 1945 by the Commanding Officers of RAF 15 Group (AVM L H Slater), Castle Archdale (D M Gordon) and W/Cdr A W Kay from HQ, Coastal Command concluded that while they could not come to a conclusion for the loss of ML743 they felt that the crew had fallen victim to a having taken a short cut of sorts on route to Donegal Bay. Recommendations were made that further standard flight paths needed to be arranged for crews flying on these routes.
The Operations Record Book (ORB), AIR27/1178 and 1179 from the UK National Archives allows us to look at the operational sorties carried out by the men who lost their lives on Sunderland ML743. Starting in the Summer of 1943, the names of all 12 men were identified among the patrol records and it was found that the men arrived at various times during that period and only a few of them flew as regular crew at any one time. Denis Hatton when he did start his operational career with the squadron flew with a number of the officers and airmen on a very regular basis in the winter of 1944 but later around the time of the crash he was more likely to be found with a few new airmen among his crew. Sadly, this was the first and only time that John Garrard flew with Denis Hatton and these crew members and it seems that this was the very first operational mission undertaken by James McAvoy with 201 Squadron.
The pilot of the aircraft, Denis Hatton was an experienced pilot at this stage of the war. The investigation reports record him having a total of 705 flying hours on all aircraft types at the time of his death. He had trained at the US Navy Air Station at Pensacola, Florida as part of his training, with a posting to 3 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit ((P)AFU) upon his return to England. His commission as an officer in the RAF was published in the London Gazette on 6 October 1942. His name appears for the first time in the Squadron ORB in the summary of officer postings for the month of January 1944. He was immediatly posted to RAF Oban in Scotland in February and his name does not appaer again until August of 1944, when he was posted back in. His promotion to Flight Lieutenant was published in the ORB in September. Finally, the 11th of September 1944 finds F/Lt Hatton flying his first operational mission with 201 Squadron. The typing in the ORB is a little difficult to decipher but he seems to have flown this sortie with Howkins, Twist, Robinson, Becker, Davison and Ford. One airman was replaced on the next fligth by S B Frith joining his crew. They were joined later in the Autumn by G R Kennedy. On the 9th of November 1944, the ORB records the crew report of an attack on a U-boat by Hatton's crew of 11 men, made up of the ML743 crew minus, Garrard, Cave and McAvoy. He was the captain of another 201 Squadron Sunderland on December 6th, in 1944 when he carried out an attack on the German U-Boat U-297. The U-boat was destroyed and the credit for the kill went to two Royal Navy vessels. Its only some 50 years later that Richard Skinner from Scotland determined that the vessels had actually attacked another U-boat and this it was F/Lt Hatton's crew which destroyed the U-Boat. The German vessel was lost with its entire crew of 50 men. The crew flying with Denis on the occasion of this attack was:
F/Sgt R D A Becker
F/Sgt S B Frith
F/O V Howkins
Sgt J R Mansfield
F/Sgt J G Robinson
F/S G R Kennedy
Sgt F N G Ford
F/Sgt D J T Twist
F/Sgt C J Ryder
F/O R Delby
Sgt R F Woodward (All names are as presented in the ORB which does contain spelling errors and can be difficult to decipher.)
The monthly summary of March 1945 in the 201 Squadron ORB records the admiralty message which congratulated F/Lt Hatton on a 'Grade B' attack on a U-Boat that was likely to have caused it great damage. F/Lt Hatton's name appeared postumously in June 1945 in a list of RAF officers Mentioned in Despatches in the London Gazette. In 2013, a letter to the local Skegness newspaper resulted in a kind letter sent by the widow of Denis's brother, Morris. In her letter she sent the photo of Denis displayed above. His mother and father were both emplyed by the Navy and Marines in Skegness during the war.
Robert Becker came from a village on the Alberta - British Columbia border in Canada. He was only 20 years of age at the time of his death, the same age as kennedy and Ford. He entered the airforce directly from high school. He arrived in the UK in December 1943 and was posted to 14 (P)AFU to get experience of flying in European weather and skies. He was posted to 201 Squadron on 13 June 1944 but was posted to 8 OTU briefly in September of that year. His name first appears in the ORB on this date when he flies a patrol under the command of F/Lt V J Barnes along with Howkins, Twist, Ford, Davison and Robinson. His remaining time with 201 Squadron seen him flying operationally exclusivly with Denis Hatton until their death together. His commishion as an officer was on process from December 1944 but at the time of his death he was still referred to in official documents as a Warrent Officer (W/O).
John Garrard was a School teacher before the war and left two young children and his wife Dorothy when he died. His service file also contains mention of his having received a mention in despatches. His daughter Patricia very kindly provided the wonderful crew photos displayed below, unfortuneatly the names of the airmen are only recorded by first name and perhaps nicknames and they don't match up to the ML743 crew names. Jack, as he was known with his comrades, arrived on 201 Squadron at the start of August 1943 after a posting to 4 Operational Training Unit (OTU). The 201 Squadron ORB records his first operational flight being on 9th October 1943 with the pilot that was to be his captain for most of his time with the Squadron, L J Wilson, RCAF. Another name that appears in most of the J P Garrard/L J Wilson flights was an airman listed a G E Whipp. The 12 man photo presented below seems thus ot show the crew lead by L J 'Jimmy' Wilson. They seem to have flown their last mission together at the end of September 1944, after which Jack does not appear on patrols until at least February 1945, when he flies three missions with different pilots, the last being the fateful flight with Denis Hatton.
| The photo of 12 airmen has the following names written on the back: Back row: Don (Pilot), George, Ken, Willie, Jimmy (Pilot), Sandy, Joe (Pilot), Self [Jack Garrard] Front row: George Whipp, Jock, Little Sandy, Max We would like to understand what the small rectangular badge is on most of the mens breasts, below their trade badge. |
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The image above with ten airmen seems to contain some of the same faces, and estimate of the names would be: Back Row: Jock, Ken, George Whipp, Max, George, Littel Sandy Front Row: (Unknown pilot), Jack Garrard, Jimmy, Sandy. It is thought that the airman named George became an officer between these two photos been taken due to the change in caps, this may be an incorrect assumption. |
John's daughter was able to identify that the pilot named Don in the photo was an officer named Don Lamb a Canadian which makes it likely that the other man with pilots wings named Jimmy was his normal pilot, L J Wilson also Canadian.
Vivian Howkins was commishioned an officer in January 1943. He is noted as being posted into the Squadron in March of 1943 and hsi first patrols don;t appear until May 1st, when he flies with F/Lt E F N Bent and he later flies missions with officers named Barnes and later Moore before they joined Hatton's crew. His promotion to F/Lt was published only weeks before his death.
David Twist appears for the first time in the ORB on the 4th of May 1944 along with Davison. He was a regular crew man under pilots Barnes, Moore and Hatton until his death. He was remembered by his local village in 2005 when the local British Legion had the Bluestacks Ramblers walking group leave a wreath at the crash site in his honour.
The neice of James McAvoy supplied this wonderful photograph with her uncle in the lower left hand position. The only note on the photo is "The six will drink beer".
James Robinson was another of the most regular airmen to fly with Denis Hatton and his name appears on operational sorties in the ORB in May and June 1944 along with Ford, Davison and Twist. His photo was provided by his grand neice who passed on the stories that were told by James' brother, her Grand father. His brother understood that James was a navigator by trade, the available records from the crash of ML743 place him in the role of Air Gunner or Wireless Operator Mechanic. He had written to his brother saying that he had completed his flying time and that he would be home soon. James had married his wife in 1942.
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| James Robinson in flying gear. | James pictured with his wife Doreen | James with his older brother John. |
James was known by his second name, George within the family. His nephew said: My father, John Robinson was serving with the 63rd Antitank regiment attached to the British 11th armoured division in 1944, the year I was born. He was part of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, through France, Belgium , Netherlands and crossed into Germany. During the start of the new year of 1945 dad had received a letter from George to say he had completed his flying missions and would be home soon. The 63rd antitank regiment was the first to arrive at Bergen-Belson concentration camp on April 15th 1945,the first camp to be liberated, this is around the time when my dad got the news George had been killed. He told us, that his senior officer would not give him leave to attend the funeral, leaving him with such a sense of anger. To us knowing the story of his childhood, losing his mother and sister when he was just 9 years old, and bringing up George just aged 3,they were close. George's grave is in Hucknall cemetery , my brothers and I have visited the grave my times but, to our knowledge our father never has, "strange", why we do not know.
The following group photos were supplied by the Robinson family and again, don't have exact names on them but the earlier photo is said to be taken in Blackpool and was during his training.
A photograph of J G Robinson with a group of fellow trainees taken in Blackpool. |
 Some of the names written on the back of this photo, sadly not all can be made out |
This photo was probably taken in Castle Archdale and probably shows an operational crew. James Robinson served under a small number of pilots during his time with 201 Squadron but sadly there were few fixed crew compliaments, men flew probably as and when needed but some effort may have been made to have some teams. James Robinson is standing at the middle of the back row. |
George Kennedy spent most of his flying time with 201 Squadron flying with a crew led by W/O R L Smith up to October 1944 after which he joined Denis Hatton and the other regular crew members.
Frederick Ford's name first appears in the 201 Squadron ORB around June 1944. There is confusion in finding his name in the ORB as there was another airman named C V Ford in the Squadron at this time. He flew regularly with Denis Hatton as well as Barnes and Moore. The ORB suggests that the other airman, C V Ford also flew with Hatton during the winter of 1944. His nephew Michael Ford, a BBC journalist, wrote about his visit to Donegal and trip to the crash site in his book, Song of the Nightingale.
The image above was supplied by M Ford and includes the inscription " My squad after we had finished digging potatoes Pembrey No 1 AGS Sept 1943". Fred Ford is far right bottom row
Sometime during the late 2000's a memorial plaque was raised on the mountain side in memory of this crew. The memorial was arranged by Mr Garry Pentland of Gortin, County Tyrone. Details or photos of this memorial are being sought from Garry and it is hoped he can advise who raised the memorial and who was present at its unveiling. The ceremoney was a private one and does not appear to have been a public event.
| The following maps shows the general area of Donegal Bay, including the towns of Killybegs and Donegal Town. Upper Lough Erne where the Flying boats were based is also seen in this map. |
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| This map below shows the area of the crash in greater detail. The RAF investigating officers drew attention to the possibility that the crew mistook Rotten Island light as being St John's Point light and thus flew overland when they though they were over the sea. These two parallel routes are shown on the map above. This was only supposition on the part of the investigation team and cannot be taken to be a proven cause for the crash. |
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Compiled by Dennis Burke, 2013.