Wellington Crash near Crewe

[creweite]

It must have been around 1943 or so, out walking my dog when a Wellington flew over the outskirts of the town, very low, made a 180 and flew in the direction of Church Minshull, and then crashed near the area known locally as Half Pear Pit, a mile or two from the Rolls Royce plant. It burned and all the crew were killed. 303 rounds were popping off in the fire, but fortunately no other war loads on board. RAF personnel from the nearby Balloon site were on hand keeping people away, I knew the corporal in charge at the time, who was involved in the clean up.
I never heard the reason for the crash or who the crew were, and would be interested if anyone has that information.

[DaveReidUK]

Here's one possibility:

Wellington IC R1298 of 18 OTU crashed near Church Minshull on 4th February 1941 after hitting a barrage balloon at the RR factory and being shot at by the Home Guard while on a navigation exercise.

The mostly Polish crew all perished.

The exploding ammunition fits in with this citation for the BEM awarded to two local policemen who tried in vain to rescue the crew:

[742-xx]

I live in Crewe and I was once told a 'ghost story' involving a supposed crashed Lancaster near to Leighton hospital.
The suggestion was that the crew still walk the roads near there.
I bet that's based on this.

[creweite]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

Here's one possibility:

Wellington IC R1298 of 18 OTU crashed near Church Minshull on 4th February 1941 after hitting a barrage balloon at the RR factory and being shot at by the Home Guard while on a navigation exercise.

The mostly Polish crew all perished.

The exploding ammunition fits in with this citation for the BEM awarded to two local policemen who tried in vain to rescue the crew:

I thought that what I saw was a little later than this, and there were certainly no exploding bombs, but that could have been press hype of course. I did not notice any airframe damage that would have occurred if it had hit a barrage balloon wire, and do not recall any being deployed at that time, they were all around us and very obvious when in the air. But two crashes in the same area would be too much of a coincidence, so I suppose this was it. Thank you for the input

[Atcham Tower]

There was another Crewe balloons collision nearly two years later. See:

Salute to airmen killed in Crewe barrage tragedies - Crewe Chronicle

[creweite]

Originally Posted by Atcham Tower

There was another Crewe balloons collision nearly two years later. See:

Salute to airmen killed in Crewe barrage tragedies - Crewe Chronicle

I think the second one is the one that I witnessed, what now appears to be the hospital grounds. Back then just an open field near what we used to call the Half Pear Pit. I walked from Frank Bott Ave across the fields to the crash site, which was quite close. The first crash is significantly further away. But I saw no evidence of airframe damage, and it appeared that the controls were functioning as the pilot was able to make a 180 to avoid going down in the Coppenhall built up area.

[Wander00]

Feel tadge sorry for Mr Adie - apparently awarded a BEM then has it rescinded.... must be a story there