REASON FOR LOSS:

Take off 0020 Melbourne. Briefed to attack Domleger flying bomb site. Approximately 30 minutes after take off the Halifax spun into the ground at Rawcliffe, after suffering a fire in the starboard outer engine. On hitting the ground the aircraft’s bomb load exploded killing all but one of the crew.


Statement of F/Sgt Coleman at the Court of Inquiry;

I am an air gunner and was detailed as Rear Gunner in aircraft Halifax III LV825 (G) which was to fly on bombing operations on the night of 16/17th June 1944. We took off at 00.20 hours from Melbourne and had to fly on a radius of action before coming back over base to set course for the operational flight proper. We flew just below the clouds which were based at about what I should judge as 1500 feet. After flying for about five minutes I heard over the intercom, the Mid-Upper Gunner (Sgt Dummer) report to the Pilot, P/O Leitch, that the starboard outer engine was on fire.

I heard the pilot say he would feather the engine but the Mid-Upper Gunner said he could see that the propellor was still rotating. The F/Engineer (Sgt Crawford) asked the Pilot whether he had pushed the feathering button right in and the latter replied that it was in as far as it could go. The Pilot also said he had put on the graviner switch, and asked the Navigator (Sgt Pearce) for a course to take the aircraft out to sea so that he could jettison the bombs. The Navigator replied that if he kept ahead as he was he would reach the sea. A few minutes later the Pilot said that he could not maintain height and that it would be best to jettison the bombs dead immediately, at the same time he ordered the crew other than myself to get into the rest position and brace themselves. I twice heard him shout out "we're going in" and I braced myself in my turret. I could see a glow on the starboard side and sparks trailing backward, but was not able to see the wing itself. All at once the aeroplane crashed and I scrambled out as quickly as I could.
The aeroplane was blazing and after shouting and getting no reply from any of the others I ran as hard as I could and after about fifty yards fell into a ditch. At this moment the bombs exploded. I lay for about four minutes and then got up to find a crowd had started to collect. I shouted out that there were bombs onboard and then a policeman led me away. I do not know for sure whether the undercarriage was down but the landing certainly felt as if we had arrived with the undercarriage up.

M. J. Coleman 19.06.44.

Back row: Sgt Crawford, Sgt Lewington, Sgt Dummer, F/Sgt Coleman. Front row: Sgt Pearce, P/O Leitch and Sgt McCarroll (Dummer).

Scene of the crash 18th June 1944.
















In the year 2000, a search was made of the crash site to determine the exact location for Harold Dummer in his quest to search for
his brother’s place of death. Fragments found between the stubble revealed shattered perpex and shrapnel (Brownless/King).

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Cyril Albert Dummer (Dummer)cccccccccccccccccccccccccccc Cyril’s last resting place (Lucas)

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Cyril’s brother Howard Dummer, Cyril made this cross of remembrance for his beloved brother Cyril. The Perspex was found in the field where LV825 blew itself to bits. (Brownless)

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Clarence Ralph Lewington (Lewington)ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc

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Original CWWG grave cross for Norman Leitch, replaced now with modern stone grave (Lucas)


Sgt Ronald Aubrey Crawford


Ronald Aubrey Crawford and William John McCarrol are both commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial (Net)

22 (10 Sqd memorial) 09.11.2008
Remembrance at the No.10 Squadron memorial 09.11.2008 (Net)

Burial details:

P/O Leitch: Harrowgate Stonefall Cemetery. Sec. B. Row G. Grave 3.
Son of Colin Campbell Leitch and Mary Leitch; husband of Isabel Currie Leitch, of Innaloo, Western Australia.

F/S McCarrol: Runnymede Memorial. Panel 220.
Son of Robert T. and Jane McCarroll, of Belfast.

Sgt Dummer: Harrowgate Stonefall Cemetery. Sec. B. Row G. Grave 4.
Son of Arthur Reginald and Ethel Mary Dummer, of Kenton, Middlesex.

Sgt Crawford: Runnymede Memorial. Panel 227.
Son of Arthur James Crawford and Florence May Crawford, of Swansea.

Sgt: Ronald Francis Pearce Plymouth (Ford Park) Cemetery. Sec. K. Row 30 Grave 29.
Son of Richard Charles and Kate Pearce, of Plymouth.

Sgt: Clarence Ralph Lewington Melksham Church Cemetery.
Son of Benjamin Job and Melinda Lewington, of Melksham.

Researched and compiled by David King and Melvin Brownless, with special thanks to Harold Dummer, Tony Lewington, John Quinn, Pete Belcher and Peter Lucas (2000), updated August 2013.

The British Library is preserving this site for the future in the UK Web Archive at www.webarchive.org.uk All Aircrew Remembered on our Remembrance pages, are therefor not just remembered here, but also subsequently remembered and recorded as part of our nation’s history
and heritage at The British Library.