On the 3rd of August 1937 this aircraft being flown back from Ternhill up to Turnhouse up the East Coast of England, the intension was to land at Usworth and refuel. Whilst flying this leg, the pilot encountered fog over the Middlesborough area at 14.27hrs. The pilot orbited the general area for sometime and tried to land at Thornaby at 15.15hrs, low cloud prevented this so he made for the coast again. He force landed the aircraft in a field near Liverton upon running low on fuel. The aircraft overran into a ravine damaging the undercarriage and propeller but the rest of the aircraft was fairly intact although it was later written off with Cat W/FA damage. The wreckage was taken to Thornaby on the 1st of September 1937 and after inspection was deemed beyond repair. It was struck off charge on the 1st of October 1937 with 231.15 total flying hours.

The aircraft was built to contract 404654/35 by Hawker and delivered to 2 ASU on the 29th June 1936. It was later transferred to 83 Sqdn on 31st July 1936 and stayed with them until this incident.

Pilot - P/O Cyril D Swain RAF, slight facial cuts.

Whilst researching Cyril Swain it has become apparent that he was one of fifty allied POW's to be murdered following the Great Escape. He became a POW on the 28th of November 1940 after the 105 Sqdn Blenheim T1893 he was in was shot down. Following his escape from Stalag Luft III he was recaptured near Gorlitz and murdered by Lux and Scharpwinkel on the 31st of March 1944, he was cremated at Liegnitz. His ashes now lie in Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery, Poland which contains the graves of many of his fellow escapees and other Allied military graves.

Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery, F/Lt Swain's grave is to the left of the rose in the front row.

Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery. These photographs of Cyril Swain's grave and of the cemetery were taken by my friend Mr Leszek Kozak in August 2008 during a holiday to his home country. Whilst I have reduced them in size for display on this website if anyone researching the Great Escape or F/Lt Swain's life would like better resolution copies of these photographs please email me.

Cyril Swain was born on the 15th of December 1911 in Wem. He had gained his Wings in August 1936 and had a total of 304 hours flying time to his name at the time of the crash at Loftus detailed at the top of this page, of these hours 96 hours were on the Hind.

The following is an extract from another website detailing his life...

""Born 1911 in Wem, Cyril's father was a partner in a small cheese factory. The young Cyril was quite an adventurer, playing rugby, climbing up very tall trees or blasting about the Shropshire lanes on his motorbike. Sid was the only one of the two brothers and three sisters who had time for his youngest sister, Sylvia, who today lives in Harmer Hill, near Shrewsbury. They spent a lot of time walking or swimming together and arguing about the merits of horses or motorbikes. Sylvia finally persuaded Sid to try riding her favourite pony but his only comment afterwards was that the brakes were far better on his motorbike. It's hardly surprising that such a character should find himself in the rapidly-expanding RAF in the mid 1930s. Cyril qualified as a pilot but in 1937, on his way back from Northern Ireland to take part in a fly past marking the King's visit to Belfast, he had to force land his aircraft, injuring his eye. {{This could infact relate to the Loftus incident}} His injuries healed quickly, but the blurred vision didn't. Sid was passed unsuitable for flying. Cursing his luck he started navigational instruction duties at No. 10 Flight Training School, Tern Hill. He was passed fit for flying duties within a couple of months but was stuck as a navigational instructor at Tern Hill. Finally, in 1940, and now promoted to Flying Officer, he was sent for operational training. In May 1940, as the Germans invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and France, he was posted to 105 Squadron, who flew Bristol Blenheim light bombers. Due to the chaos he spent most of his time chasing the squadron from base to base. By the time he caught them up, it was about to be evacuated back to the UK. Sid finally flew his first combat sortie from England in August 1940, at a time when the RAF's bomber losses were incredibly high. He did well to come back from eight 'trips' but the luck didn't last. He and his crew failed to return from a raid on Dusseldorf. Two weeks later news got through that Sid, by now a Flight Lieutenant, had been shot down and was a prisoner at Stalag Luft I at Barth, Germany. Stalag Luft I, close to the Baltic Sea, was the first German Prisoner of War camp for captured airmen.""