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Registration
or Serial: L4063
Operator:
Royal Air Force; 50 Squadron RAF
Operating Base:
RAF Waddington
Base
Location: Waddington, Lincoln, LN5 9NB
Current
Airport Status: Operational
Military Airport
Current
Airport Name:
RAF Waddington
(IATA: WTN / ICAO:
EGXW)
(Principal airport data courtesy of
John Woodside,
A
Catalogue of UK Airfields)
Aircraft Nickname:
The Flying Suitcase
Aircraft Type & Background
The
Handley Page Hampden was a five-seat medium bomber which first entered
service with No. 5 Group RAF in 1938. The aircraft had a fixed
forward-facing gun in addition to three manually operated Lewis
guns. However, crew positions in the narrow fuselage were cramped:
hence the nickname, 'the flying suitcase.'
Initially,
Hampdens were used in daylight bombing raids over Germany. However,
due to heavy losses at the hands of the faster Luftwaffe fighters,
Hampdens were withdrawn from this role in 1942.
Hampdens
were used also by RAF Coastal Command as torpedo bombers. This role
ceased, however, in 1943.
Aircraft Accident Details
This Hampden bomber had left its base at RAF Waddington for an
anti-shipping patrol to Heligoland. On its return flight, however,
the aircraft apparently strayed off-course, ultimately crashing into
high ground between Cock Law and Windy Gyle. (Windy Gyle forms part
of the Cheviot Hills, and lies about 12 miles SSE of Kirk Yetholm in
the Borders region of Scotland.)
The aircraft's bomb load exploded on impact, killing the four crew
on board.
Malfunctioning direction finding equipment producing an inaccurate
QDM (magnetic drift factor) is reported to have contributed to the
accident.
Those who died were:
The
names of Sgt Rowling and LAC Wallace are recorded on the Runnymede
Memorial, panels 19 and 24 respectively.
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Accident Date
17 March 1940
Accident
Site
Windy Gyle
(619m / 2,032ft)
Region: Cheviot Hills,
Northumberland National Park (Scottish / English border)
Nearest
town or village: Kirk Yetholm (Borders,
Scotland) or
Barrowburn
from Alwinton (Northumberland, England).
OS Grid Ref:
N/A Present Condition
Practically all wreckage now removed.
Memorial erected on site by
Lincolnshire Aircraft Recovery Group.
Related Links
Video Clip
RAF Link
Other Links
(Hampden
Aircraft)
Other Links
(General)
Below: A Handley Page Hampden
bomber in flight.
Photo: [pre-1950] Taken by an
employee of the UK government. Photo now in the public
domain.
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