A drive out to Cheshire to find 2 sites.
In the warm days of April 1944 the pace of training was accelerating across England for D Day. Ablemarle aircraft of 42 OTU RAF Ashbourne, Derbyshire were to play a key part in operation 'TONGA ' the air dropping of the 6th airborne over Normandy.
Ablemarle Mk2 V1609 took off with its crew of 5 on a training flight to RAF Tilstock Shropshire. Climbing into the sunny day the crew set course, but some time later in the small village of Hartford locals heard the approach of a plane. This plane grew closer and passed over Chester Road it then began a turn to pass over again this time lower. V1609 turned and dropped lower, but on this pass the crews luck ran out clipping the chimney of a cottage in a row called 'The Villas', the damaged plane fell and crashed across the road into a wall and broke up over farm land on Grange Farm behind the wall.
The rear turret was thrown onto the road with its injured occupant trapped inside, locals ran to help but sadly only the Gunner was saved from the crew of 5.
On the street today nothing shows but a small plaque placed on the wall next to the crash site, this happened after local objections to a housing development on the site and fears that these young men would never be remembered after the area was put under tarmac.
Across the road the villas still stand and if you look carefully you can see the rebuilt chimney on the end of the row. One of the crew lost, Sgt Aubrey Graham Crowe, lived a few doors down from this house and it is likely the crew fell into a all too common trap of performing high jinks over a family home as they were 50 miles off the intended track.
Sgt Crowe rests in a family plot in St Johns church overlooking the crash site.
Crew lost in V1609 =
F/Sgt R.P.H.Brown
W/o F.A.Andrew
F/Sgt A.G.Crowe
F/Sgt J.Crichton
Survived =
Sgt A.Ewen
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