Wellington in Saltwick Bay.

1443 Flt was set up so that the crews could basically test their aircraft prior to flying them out to Egypt where they would take part in the War in that part of northern Africa. The aircraft they would use in 1443 Flt would be the one they would fly themselves over and use when they were there.

On the 26th of July 1942 the crew of this Wellington took off from Harwell with a dual task of a part training exercise and part testing of the aircraft, it had been repaired prior to this flight (reasons known). They would be flying over to Africa shortly afterwards on the same aircraft. On this test flight they were to have Newcastle as a northerly turning point, from then on they flew south and were to have returned to Harwell later in the day. It was whilst the aircraft was about two miles out to sea and somewhere north east of Middlesborough that the port engine caught fire, the pilot then decided to make for Thornaby airfield. The port wing soon caught fire and the aircraft began to loose height. The aircraft was by now not far off Whitby and flying at 1000 feet. It became clear to the pilot that the aircraft was now too low for the crew to be able to bale out safely from the aircraft, the aircraft was also too low to be able to make a safe landing on land as the town of Whitby made an extra hazard. The pilot turned the aircraft back out to sea and ditched it about a mile out to sea at around 16.00hrs in Saltwick Bay to the south of the town. Prior to the ditching the pilot recalled theoretical notes of jettisoning fuel from the aircraft to aid with keeping the aircraft afloat in the water - air in the fuels tanks helping. He turned the jettison valve only to see the fuel pour out of the wing and onto the burning section of the aircraft. The jettison theory was then abandoned.

The ditching was made sucessfully and the six airmen on board exited the plane and onto the dingy, as the last airman got onto the life raft, the aircraft sank, more or less in one peice. By now a number of fishing boats were making for the crew, the first to arrive being a small fishing boat with two young boys forming part of its crew. The airmen went on board and were taken into Whitby harbour and then to a small cottage hospital on the hilltop in Whitby to wait for fresh uniforms arriving. The airmen hoped to be able to be able to get into Whitby later that evening but two WAAF's arrived with their new uniforms and took them back to Thornaby where they would spend the night. The next day Harwell's CO was to fly up to Thornaby in the Squadron's Anson to collect the six, bad weather prevented this so they returned to the south of England by train. The pilots log book stated the aircraft had gone down "150' Whitby, 1 mile"

Pilot - Sgt Norman R Millson RAF, of Hove, ok.

2nd Pilot - ? Phillips RAFVR, ok. Came with the regular crew on this flight but did not feature in after this one.

Front Gunner - Bob Berry RAFVR, of Jersey, ok. After the War he returned to Jersey, he was still living there at Christmas 2004.

Nav - Philip Greenstein RAFVR, ok.

W Op - Sgt "Butch" Bennett RAFVR, ok.

Rear Gunner - Bert Doublard RAFVR, of the Channel Islands, ok.

Saltwick Bay.

Norman Millson.

My thanks to Mr Norman Millson for recounting his memories of his ditching in the North Sea, which I detail above, without which this webpage would never have been as detailed. I also thank his daughter for arranging my telephone call.
The next day the crew were given a fresh aircraft, a MkVIII Wellington, they had to test the aircraft similarly. On the 20th of August 1942 they began their ferry flight over to the Middle East, from Harwell they went to Portrees in Cornwall, the next day to Gibraltar, the following day over to Malta and then to a Maintanance Unit near Gazza, in Palestine where they arrived by the 23rd of August 1942. The crew then joined 108 Sqdn and carried out three Ops in the next few weeks, bombing Tebruk on all occasions. On the fourth Op on the 18th of September 1942 they were hit by enemy fire near the target of Tebruk and were able to partly head back to base although height could not be maintained. The pilot gave the order to abandon the aircraft and this was done successfully, all regular crew came down very close to each other. On the aircraft on this trip was the Wing Commander, W/C Maw, probably flying with them as they were a new crew, the aircraft as such carried no 2nd pilot, with the Wing Commander taking up his seat. The Wing Commander didn't land with the other airmen and they did not see him again in the War. The five other airmen then began to walk back to base! Three days into this they were captured and taken prisoner and first went to a camp near to the Libyian boarder before being tranferred to Bengazi and later to Tripoli. Norman Millson left Africa on 1st Jan 1943 and was shipped to Italy, where he was held for six months prior to being taken to a POW camp in Germany where he saw out the rest of the War. In total he spent two years and nine months a POW with 2000 other senior NCO aircrew. The next Norman Millson heard of W/C Maw was after the War, it transpired he had ended up in Colditz and had a part to play in making clothing for would-be escapees.
Mr Millson had enlisted in July 1938 for nine years service in the RAF, he was the only regular RAF airman on the ditching incident, the others being reserve airmen. Following his time as a POW he became a Warrant Officer until the RAF reshuffle in 1947 working in flying control. After the rank reshuffle he became a Flt Sgt, before discharged from the RAF in July 1947 when his nine years were up. In his own words, a lucky man, he lost two brothers in the War.

Mr Millson in 2005. My thanks to his daughter Lynne for these photographs.