WW2 bomber crash

[Johnv41]

Hi all , hoping for a little help , I will start by saying I am not a pilot ,so that is really the reason for asking this question
I am researching a crash of a Stirling aircraft , I know that they lost part or all of the starboard stabiliser when they hit a tree , the thing I would like to understand is which direction would the aircraft turn once that part was lost and would the pilot of had any chance of controlling the direction of turn
many thanks

[meleagertoo]

By the time you've got as far into a crash as losing half the stab to a tree controlling a turn is probably a pretty academic concept, but in isolation just losing half the stab would not prevent the ailerons or rudder from working. However for the tree to have got to the stab it probably had a violent encounter with the wing/engine(s) first and that might well initiate some yaw and possibly the beginnings of a turn.

[DaveReidUK]

Out of curiosity, where and when did this accident happen?

[sandringham1]

Just a guess on my part but I wonder if the OP might be interested in the crash, on the 4th April 1944, of Stirling IV glider tug LJ842. That aircraft struck a tree on the South Downs at night near the village of Warnford but continued flying until crashing close to Romsey some 15 minutes later, all six crew on board were killed. The Horsa glider the Stirling was towing crashed immediately after the Stirling hit the tree killing the 27 soldiers onboard, a truly tragic event, a memorial stone has recently been placed there.
I have not seen anything written that says where that tree was located and whether any parts of the Stirling were found lying on the ground near it that may give a clue to how badly damaged the Stirling was. If the tailplane/elevator was damaged then pitch control would have been the primary concern, especially as the now damaged aircraft was already at tree top height and needing to climb, a turn due to damage would have been controlled using the ailerons with rudder applied if an engine was at reduced power.
I might be wrong in my assumption linking your request for help to the event detailed above but I feel its still a fitting time to remember those who died.

[Johnv41]

Thanks for replies so far , actually it’s not research around the Warnford crash , although I was aware of this and it’s not far from me
The aircraft I am interested in crashed near Ipsden in Oxfordshire . I have been helping a friend who’s uncle was the flight engineer , tragically all the crew perished. As might be expected of a wartime accident the enquiry by the RAF leads to as many questions as it does answers , and this was just one element to try and understand what the effect may have been ,trying to understand what the original track of the aircraft may have been in relation to the actual crash site

[DaveReidUK]

The Air-Britain military accident lists have around 30 instances of Stirlings hitting trees ...

[Jhieminga]

If you would just lose half your stabiliser... your nose would be going down rapidly as that's the part that helps in keeping it pointing at the horizon. But, as has been mentioned, if the rest of the airframe hit other bits of woodland, after that the trajectory of the airframe is more a matter of inertia than aerodynamics.
Purely speculating, if the rest of the airframe managed to miss said tree, a blow to the right horizontal stabiliser with enough force to shear that off would 'slow down' the righthand side of the airframe a bit, causing the nose to move right, swiftly followed by the nose moving down in response to losing downforce on the tail. A firm pull on the yoke might get the other elevator to move enough to keep the nose from going down very quickly, but it would probably not be enough to completely arrest that movement.