304 Squadron (Bomber Command) Loss

[Elliven]

On or about 10th December 1940, 304 Squadron lost its first aircraft in a training accident near Edmondsley in County Durham.  It was a Vickers Wellington Mk 1c serial R1268 NZ-T and was a total write off.  Can anyone please help with information from the MU who removed the wreckage as there is little or nothing in the Squadron records about the loss.

[tazzie]

Do you have crew details I see they were Polish airmen  in the squadron.


 Tazzie

[tonepad]

14 Dec. Vickers Wellington no. R1268 (NZ-T) Force landed during a traing flight near Edmondsley in adverse weather  (a/c  iced  up). F/O Waroczewski, F/O Kostuch, F/O Stanczuk and Sgt Boczkowski were safe.

http://www.polishsquadronsremembered.com/304/304losses.htm


Tony

[Sandblown]

http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?7210-Wellington-R1268

Wellington R1268 is also discussed on the above Thread. But no account of what happened to the Aircraft wreckage.

[Elliven]

To Tazzie,

It was a navigational training cross country flight and the crew was unusual in that there were no wireless operators/air gunners on board.

The crew were:  F/O Jan Stanislaw Waroczewski (senior pilot), Sgt Stanislaw Bocskowski (co-pilot), F/O Marian Kostuch (navigator) and P/O Edmund Stanczuk (navigator).

[Elliven]

To tonepad,

Thank you.  As you say, all were safe but all were injured - three of them quite seriously.  Sgt Bocskowski was the only walking wounded but even he suffered facial and chest injuries.

[Elliven]

Thank you Sandblown,

I was involved in that conversation you quoted but very little came of it.  The person who initiated the conversation visited the crash site with me and we found a few small bits and pieces of the aircraft but nothing of any significance.  The landowner told me that his grandfather said the MU people recovered the engines and guns but smashed the airframe up with axes and took it away for scrap.  I was hoping that somebody may have taken an official phto of the wreckage - but no luck there.

[tazzie]

I see sadly Jan Stanislaw Waroczewski died almost 6 month later on 28th May 1941.
 He is buried in Newark upon Trent cemetery aged 29 years.

 Tazzie

[Elliven]

Yes, his plane was hit by AA fire whilst bombing the invasion barges at Boulogne but he managed to get it back across the Channel and crashed near Battle.  There were only two survivors and both were hurt.