Ex PD259

Ex PD259 We are incredibly lucky at RAF Waddington in that the Heritage Centre, which is located in a historically significant building right next to Raven’s Club, holds the substantial remains of Lancaster PD259 which has extraordinarily strong history with the Station.

PD259 (JO-G) operated by 463 Sqn RAAF from RAF Waddington, conducted all its operational flights from this home base. The last one of which resulted in a crash on 31 Aug 44 during a training sortie, in the Monadhiliath Mountains on the Balavil Estate, near Kingussie. Very tragically all the 7 crew members were killed.

PD259 was delivered to RAF Waddington on 06 Aug 44 and flew all 6 of its combat missions between 15 Aug and 30 Aug. When delivered to RAF Waddington, it came under the captaincy of Flt Lt Bill Purdy; this WW2 veteran and true gent has returned to Waddington on several occasions since. Flt Lt Purdy has always referred to it as ‘his’ aircraft because he took possession of it the day it was delivered from the Avro factory in Manchester to Waddington. Flt Lt Purdy captained PD259 on 3 of its combat missions and is an incredible individual. This is evidenced through flying 36 WW2 missions; being awarded the DFC, which was presented by King George VI; and he has continued his aviation link through regularly flying the lead Tiger Moth in the ANZAC Day flypast over Sydney Harbour until quite recently, an amazing feat, particularly for a person in their 90’s.

The last operational mission for PD259 was to Konigsberg (now called Kaliningrad) in Russia, captained by Fg Off McKern DFC on this occasion PD259 suffered some flak damage and had to return with one of its engines shut down and the crew described it as a ‘hairy ride home’. On the night of 31 Aug 44 there were no Ops planned so the new, or ‘sprog crew’ led by Fg Off Beddoe were tasked to undertake a cross country, night training flight. At some point during the flight the crew encountered a problem over a remote, mountainous area in the Highlands of Scotland and tragically crashed in a very remote area.

There are a few theories behind the cause of the crash. The first is that there may have been more damage from the flak from the previous days sortie which may have contributed to it. Another theory is that the weather coming in from the Atlantic was extremely poor with icing conditions and it is possible that this weather progressed towards Scotland and when the crew experienced problems they were forced to try to land on the mountainous terrain. There are further theories none of which can be evidenced or proved.

The Sqn Operations Log makes only a small mention of PD259, the entry on 31 Aug gives two short sentences: ‘P/O Beddoe and crew were engaged on a cross country flight and crashed 10 miles ENE of Kingussie. As the aircraft crashed in the mountains no information is available until reached by the search party’. The Log’s entry for 01 Sep first mentions the weather, training, and a cricket match before it gets to ‘Information received 1800 hrs that the bodies of P/O Beddoe and 5 members of his crew found at scene of crash. All Killed. No trace of Navigator (F/S Walker) – open parachute near crash’. Given that so many Bomber Command aircraft and their courageous crews were lost in WW2, 55 573 aircrew died in total, it sets the context in which the Ops Log entry should be understood.

The crew of PD259 on 31 Aug 1944 was comprised of: Plt Off R H Beddoe – Pilot – RAAF WO G H Middleton – Flight Engineer – RAF FS S A Abbot – Mid Upper Gunner – RAAF FS T R Dent – Wireless Operator/Air Gunner – RAAF FS B M Glover – Rear Gunner – RAAF FS D H Ryan – Bomb Aimer – RAAF FS F Murray-Walker – Navigator – RAAF

The six Australian members of the crew had spent 2 years training in Australia and the UK and this was to be their last training flight before they commenced Ops. The Australians did not train Flight Engineers hence why there is a British member of the crew, WO Middleton was experienced though

The Operations Record Book for RAF Longman in Inverness records that a crash party were sent out on 01 Sep 44 at 0010 and spent 19 hours in ‘very wild hilly country’ and that ‘The bomber had apparently exploded in midair at an estimated altitude of 10,000ft’. They discovered six bodies of the crew, but it was not possible to recover them all at once and the seventh member of the crew was still missing when they returned. The ‘Mountain Section’ Kinloss relieved the Longman crash party to bring in the remaining bodies the following day. There is no official information about the Navigator, but some accounts say he was found at the bottom of a small cliff. The weather report was for thunderstorms, with cloud base 1000ft in rain: hence why there are still many unknowns about the loss of PD259 because of all the contradictions. For instance; how could they state it exploded at 10,000 ft if the cloud base was only 1000ft? The RAAF members of the crew were subsequently interred in the War Cemetery in Cambridge whilst the British Flight Engineer is buried in Rutherglen cemetery in Glasgow.

The story slows down a bit for a few years but in earlier discussions with Mr Allan Macpherson-Fletcher previously the owner of the Balavil Estate he explained;

‘Going back to the old days, when the plane crashed the estate was owned by my uncle, Harry Brewster Macpherson, who died in 1947 and then my Aunt Peggy then looked after the estate until I took over in 1975. During that period there were very few people on the hill other than shepherds and gamekeepers and the occasional grouse shooter in the season. "The bomber" was always just referred to as that and was a mark of reference if There wasn't much interest in the bomber I suppose until hill-walking became fashionable in the 80's and then we did notice that one or two bits were being vandalised and possibly removed. We had various requests from museums and individuals to remove items from the hill and the crash site, but we steadfastly refused permission on the basis that the crash site was a memorial to the seven crew members who were killed.

In 1994 I received a letter from Sqn Ldr Griffin of the Mission Support Wing at Waddington, again asking for permission to remove various bits and again I denied them access. Shortly afterwards however I received a letter from Ted Richardson of 467-463 Lancaster Squadrons Association asking permission to remove one propeller blade from JO-G on behalf of the Association's members who wanted a memorial at Waddington. This hand-written letter was so beautifully worded that we allowed permission.

That then rather opened the floodgates for the RAF Waddington crews to come and remove various bits from the hill having persuaded me that it was in the interests of all to secure the crash site and stop any further theft or vandalism.

Over the next few years, with the news of PD259 being up on the websites, we had some interesting visitors. Firstly, we had Bill Jackson and his wife Daphne from Queensland in Australia who had flown as the bomb aimer on PD259 the day before it crashed on its last flight to Konningsberg. We have his diary notes which make for extraordinary reading.

Secondly, we had Fred Murray-Walker and his wife visit the site. Fred is the son of Frank Murray-Walker who was killed in the crash and who only met his son for half an hour after he was born having absconded from training camp in Australia to visit his wife and newly born son before being posted to the UK. That was a pretty moving visit.

Thirdly, we had Bill Purdy visit the site. Bill always referred to it as "his" aircraft because he took possession of it the day it was delivered from the factory in Manchester to Waddington. He recalls how it landed perfectly and taxied round in front of the tower and a small blond girl hopped out and told him it was all his! She had flown it single-handedly to deliver it to him. His tales of lowlevel flights were also quite extraordinary.

We also met the son of George Middleton at one of the airshows at Waddington and he came to the unveiling of the memorial at our graveyard. It transpired that George Middleton, prior to his death had sired 2 families from 2 different ladies and it was the Lancaster which, through myself, brought the

2 families together after 60 years or so.’

The RAF Waddington perspective has been covered a bit by Allan and there are a few magazine articles available that also cover the period from 200710 when return visits were made and substantial parts of PD259 were recovered with a propeller blade memorial being set up in the cemetery at Balavil along with the full propeller that now resides in the RAF Waddington Memorial Garden. That period adds a great deal to the history of PD259 and there have been many visits from former crew members and of course family members from the last crew to fly it and we were gifted the personal diary of FS Ryan that rather poignantly has his last entry as 30 Aug 44. A fuselage frame was constructed within the Heritage Centre and PD259 is now a very impressive centre piece and memorial to all the crews that flew from RAF Waddington during that period in history.

The RAF Waddington Heritage Centre team had previously organised a large visit and commemoration for the 75th anniversary of the crash and we recently undertook a return visit in Jun 22. We stayed overnight in the RRC at Grantown-onSpey and then set off early to walk out to the crash site although two members went up with the Estate Hill Keeper so that they could spend longer surveying the area. The site is still very remote despite a track having been constructed along part of the Balavil Estate with much of the walk being undertaken across soft peat ground and this year’s route entailed a 26Km round trip with 978m change in elevation.

The site is obvious as you head up the hill with the two pits containing substantial pieces of PD259 and plenty of recognisable parts of airframe are scattered around the site, the soft peat is slowly reclaiming the heavier parts with just the top part of a propeller being the only indication of the location of one of the engines. When we previously visited the weather was awful and we only had time for a memorial service and a small look at the main areas of the site, this time the survey team had longer at the site in reasonable conditions and were able to locate more isolated items such as the other tail fin along with more time to examine what is in the pits, the Estate Hill Walker mentioned that a large part of the wing is located some distance from the majority and that will be one to locate and record on a different visit.

We took a variety of personnel to the site and were lucky enough to be able to take two Australian exchange personnel with us and everyone got to experience the full gamut of Scottish hill weather conditions, often in half an hour. The following two days of the Exped allowed for an FD visit to RAF Lossiemouth, mountain biking and further hill walking with the chance to bag a Munro.

The history of PD259 continues to grow. A Last Post Ceremony is held every day at the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra and commemorates the story of a Service person who is listed on the Honour Roll. Earlier in the year we held a visit in the Heritage Centre with the AWM Director, and they were gifted a flying boot from one of the crew and then in May the Last post Ceremony commemorated Plt Off Beddoe and they arranged for the boot to be placed with the photograph of him at the ceremony. After our last visit we contacted the Commonwealth and War Graves Commission as the details on WO Middleton’s gravestone were incorrect and they subsequently agreed to amend it during the next maintenance event of his headstone. The MoD police contacted us last year as they had recovered the control column of PD259 from a ‘collector’ and we supplied a lot of information of the site and are hopeful that it will be reunited with the rest of the aircraft at Waddington in the future once the proceedings have been completed.

PD259 only flew 57hrs in total and the remarkable condition that many of the items are still in mean that it is as original a Lancaster as you will ever get despite having spent so long on the hill and looking like a jigsaw puzzle. The original paintwork is incredibly clear and shows just how roughly it was originally applied along with the obvious change in the fuselage code letter. It would be fantastic to recover the rest of it back to Waddington but the change to Licences for crash sites make this more difficult although we may be able to recover some fuselage items soon. The wreck is still very remote but has been subject to vandals and looters over the years. The current Estate owners are still protective of it and fully supported our visit and we look forward to returning next year and are already planning for the 80th anniversary of its loss.

The RAF Waddington Heritage Centre is a very proactive and important part of the Station’s Engagement and if you would like to become involved with a highly successful team, or if you would like to arrange a visit then please just contact wad-heritagecentre@mod. gov.uk

Comment from SQN LDR Nathan Thompson, RAAF exchange officer based at RAF Waddington (suggested breakout for the article, with separate Australian flag photo):

RAF Waddington is a special place to be posted as an Australian exchange officer because of our presence here during WW2. On my arrival here, it was fantastic to be welcomed to the heritage centre and to learn more about our RAAF history.

The tangible part of this history is the remains of PD259 recovered from the crash site in Scotland and reconstructed within the centre. When the opportunity arose for us to participate in a hike to the crash site, we enthusiastically got involved. Over 12, 000 Australians volunteered for service in Bomber Command during WW2, and PD259 reminds us of the 5, 500 that did not return.

Thank you to the volunteers within the RAF Waddington Heritage Centre stewarding our shared heritage, it was a great privilege to have been involved with this hike, and to learn more about our predecessors.