16/17 December 1943 – 166 Squadron, RAF Kirmington - Avro Lancaster III– JB639 – P/O A E Brown RAFVR and crew - Op Berlin.
Location - Near the village of Thornton Curtis, North Lincs
Sgt Arthur Edward Brown ( pictured above ) and his crew were posted to 166 Sqn at Kirmington at the end of October 1943.
The crew consisted of :-
Sgt A E Brown RAFVR.
Sgt C Thompson RAFVR
Sgt W N Griffin RAFVR
Sgt H R Williams RAFVR
Sgt L D Parry RAFVR
Sgt E V Smith RAFVR
Sgt H Standen RAFVR.
They commenced operations on the 3/4th November 1943 with a trip to Dusseldorf. This proved a successful and uneventful debut for the Brown crew
In the next month they flew 4 more operations.
18/19th November 1943 – Berlin.
22/23rd November 1943 – Berlin
2/3rd December 1943 – Berlin
3/4th December 1943 – Lepizig.
All these long trips were completed effectively without incident which was a good show for a novice crew.
On the 16th/17th December Brown’s crew were detailed for another operation to Berlin.
The crew was as above with the exception of Sgt H Standen who was replaced by Sgt D W Inglis RAFVR. Inglis was the regular rear gunner with F/O F Taylor and crew and must have been used as a spare that night to fill in for Sgt Standen who was presumably sick.
On return to the UK the bomber force encountered low cloud and fog around the eastern areas of the country. This made landing very difficult and 29 Lancasters and 1 Stirling crashed or were abandoned by their crews on return to the UK. At Kirmington the records show the cloud base at 500 feet.
Brown’s crew were given instructions to “Prepare to land “ but during their approach and descent through the cloud their Lancaster hit the high ground near the village of Thornton Curtis. All the crew were killed.
Some sources show the location of the crash as Little Walk Farm, Thornton Curtis. However I am not at all sure about that as I live quite near the village and I have never been able to locate Little Walk Farm or any mention of it at all in WW2 or since then right up to the present day. I have also made enquiries locally without success. However I have read in a published diary written by the local GP at the time that on this night a Lancaster crashed at Walk House which is between Barrow upon Humber and Thornton Curtis. Walk House is still there and I think Walk House is probably correct but I shall welcome feedback re this from anybody with further information.
Chris Towle has since contacted me and confirms what I suspected and the site of the crash is Walk House. Thank you Chris.
The crew rest at the Cemeteries shown below :-
P/O Arthur Edward Brown RAFVR - Pilot – 23 – 166 Sqn - Son of James Arthur and Ruby Evelyn Brown, of Ipswich. - Ipswich Old Cemetery, Suffolk
Sgt. Charles George Thompson RAFVR – Flight Engineer - 27 – 166 Sqn - Son of John and Elizabeth Thompson, of Langside, Glasgow - Cambridge City Cemetery, Cambridgeshire
Sgt. Henry Albert Williams RAFVR – Navigator - 27 – 166 Sqn - Beckenham Crematorium and Cemetery. St. John's Sec, Kent.
Sgt. Norman Nowell Griffin RAFVR – Air Bomber - 21 – 166 Sqn - Son of Gilbert John and Violet Blanche Griffin, of Hove - Hove New Cemetery, East Sussex.
Sgt. Leslie Dennis Perry RAFVR – Wireless Operator / Air Gunner – 166 Sqn - Cambridge City Cemetery, Cambridgeshire.
Sgt. Edward Victor Smith RAFVR – Air Gunner - 19- 166 Sqn - Son of Victor George and Edith May Smith, of Westcliff-on-Sea; nephew of Mr. E. H. Smith, of Romford - Romford Cemetery, Essex.
Sgt. David Wilson Inglis RAFVR – Air Gunner – 31 – 166 Sqn - Son of William James Inglis and Jane Inglis; husband of Mary Jane Inglis. - Brigg Cemetery, North Lincolnshire.
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Sgt H Standen who was replaced by Sgt D W Inglis for this trip joined the crew of F/O F Taylor and was shot down on the Nuremburg Raid 30/31st March 1944. Sgt Standen survived and was a POW for the rest of the war.
166 Sqn also lost another aircraft on return that night, Sgt S F Miller and crew in LM385 which crashed on high ground near Caistor with the same tragic outcome.
Item written by David Fell with thanks to Dave King of the Aircrew Remembrance Society for permission to use their photograph of Arthur Brown and also Bernard Brown who was the original source. I will add more photos of local interest to this item in due course.
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