![]() While on a training mission, Vickers Wellington IC HF855 overshot on landing at RAF Harwell and crashed into a field on the 26th April 1942. Pilot Wynton Scott Munday and Pilot George Thomas Watt both lost their lives. The aircraft stalled and dived into the ground. While on circuits over the airfield, the port engine burst into flames. The crew of Vickers Wellington I, L4259, took off from RAF Hampstead Norris, Berkshire, on the 17th October 1940 on a training mission. The crash made the national press when a young German man who was living nearby filmed the wreckage and was arrested for spying and deported. They took off from RAF Harwell on the 23rd September 1941 but soon after, the port engine failed and the aircraft crashed into Jarn Mound of Boar's Hill trying to land at RAF Abingdon. Pilot Robert Andrew McConnochie and 2nd pilot Harry Maynard Walsh were part of a five man crew of Vickers Wellington IC Z8354 that were tasked with an Overseas Aircraft Delivery Unit flight for Malta via Gibraltar. On the 28th November 1939, Wireless Operator Frederick Challenger Overall was on board Avro Anson I N5084 on a night time training mission from RAF Harwell when it crashed onto Exmoor, killing all five crew members. There is also one First World War burial in the cemetery, and one non-war service grave.ĬWGC Harwell Cemetery - Harwell, Berkshire, Saturday 20th June 2020 by Chris Day, on Flickr The site is now home to the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus.ĬWGC Harwell Cemetery contains 66 Second World War burials, most of them forming a war graves plot, the majority of them made from the station. Over the years that reduced in scale and other science-based research moved in, such as the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in 1957. The RAF station was closed at the end of 1945 and the site transferred to the Ministry of Supply on the 1st January 1946, where it became the Atomic Energy Research Establishment. The airfield was also used briefly for Special Operations Executive (SOE) operations between July and September 1944. A memorial to the men who flew from RAF Harwell who were killed on this operation now exists at one edge of the old airfield site, and a memorial service is held there annually. In fact the first glider-borne troops to arrive in Normandy on D-Day came from RAF Harwell. These gliders were used in a number of operations including carrying troops into Normandy to secure vital strategic positions in advance of the main landings on D-Day. In March 1944, it was reallocated to 30 Group Airborne Forces, where it mainly operated tug aircraft towing Airspeed Horsa gliders. The following squadrons were posted to Harwell: The original grass field was replaced with concrete runways between July and November 1941. There were numerous Luftwaffe raids on the airfield from August 1940 until September 1941. 38 Group RAF, initially used leaflet missions over France using Vickers Wellington bombers, later bombing raids on Bremen, Cologne and Essen. On the outbreak of the Second World War, it became part of No. ![]() The first Commanding Officer, upon being asked what the name of the new airfield should be, responded that it should be named after the parish in which his house lay – and this happened to be Harwell.įrom its opening in February 1937 until March 1944, various bomber squadrons were stationed at the airfield. The bulk lay within Chilton parish about a third was in East Hendred and the smallest portion was in Harwell. The airfield was built by John Laing & Son at the junction of three parishes in 1935. RAF Harwell is a former Royal Air Force station, near the village of Harwell, located 5 miles south east of Wantage, Oxfordshire.
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