Metal Legs.

[luffers79]

Thanks Danza Henry Crun.
Feltwellsite will soon get back to me.

I can only think that things might have been exagerated somewhere along the line ???
However, I ´ve just looked at a map & the Brandon crash site (East of) would be about 8 ? miles from Feltwell village. - Certainly not" just over the roof tops "to where we orbited the crater. Also the Night v Day business ? Odd.
Also, the distances where the A/C bits were blown to were considerable (100 yards ??), if true . A bomb load could do it .
Maybe Feltwell´s Web Manager can help when he has a moment & it will clarify things ??
I´ll keep u informed !!

[rusty_y2k2]

14 breaks in his leg would certainly require metal structures to hold the bone in place, and makes much more sense than live skin over a totally prosthetic leg.

[luffers79]

Thanks haltonbrat (on your First post, I see !!). Also rusty y2k2 & all others - what you have contributed may have solved a nagging thought I´ve had at the back of my mind for years !!
As I said , I´ll let you know what the Feltwell Historian comes up with.

[errol.martyn]

Hello,

I've just registered. Here is a copy of a post I made on RAF Commands yesterday (further to that made on this thread earlier on my behalf by 'November 4'):

John/Dave,

Also quoting a post from the PPRuNe board that appeared subsequent to John's publishing my FYT extract there (for which my thanks):

"Perhaps the pilot had more than one crash in Wellingtons? The crash above occurred in daytime on an air test, presumably would not have a bomb load aboard. The crash originally referred to happened at night and left a large crater when the bombs exploded. How close to Feltwell is Brandon? The mystery deepens!"

My entry is in error regarding the location of Lime Kiln Farm from Brandon - it is not ESE, nor really SW but almost directly west, lying almost equidistant between Brandon and the Lakenheath Railway Station (which lies a mile or two north of the town of Lakenheath). I could cannot now find Brandon Fields and wonder if this might have been a transcription error of data on the Form 1180 by my researcher.

Since publication I have obtained a copy of a precis of the Court of Inquiry. This lists the crew sans initials and includes Aircraftman Hall, who is the name missing from Bill Chorley's entry (p38 of his 1942 Vol). It describes Colville, Godwin and Hall's injuries as 'serious'.

The precis states in part:

"On 28-2-42, Sgt Colville (1st pilot) with crew of five, took off in Wellington X.3355 on a test flight. Shortly after becoming airborne the starboard engine failed. The pilot endeavoured to return to the aerodrome but while making a circuit the port engine spluttered and when approaching for a forced landing the aircraft stalled and crashed. An outbreak of fire occured on impact and with the exception of the rear half of the fuselage and engines, the aircraft was destroyed...

...the starboard engine failed when the aircraft had not much height. The pilot possibly in trying to force land before he crashed, was compelled to turn to the right against his bad engine. It seems probable that the evidence of AC Hall (seventh witness) that the starboard wing stalled during the turn and dropped, and as the aircraft hit the ground with the starboard wing tip first it swung round to the right...

...it took off about 1600 hours and the crash must have occured just before 1625 hours when it was reported to F/Lt Walkerdine (12th witness).

Although Mr Harrington {note spelling} (11th witness) states he found one of the occupants in the nose turret, we think it was probably the pilots cockpit. Both AC Godwin and AC Hall state that there was not one in the nose turret at the time of the crash and when we found the front turret it was completely smashed and there was no evidence of it having been occupied..."

I don't think that there can be much doubt about this being the crash the crippled Colville so badly. Perhaps, though, by 1957 memory had played tricks on him or he had embellished the account somewhat, or the account as retailed on the PPRuNe board is a little garbled. Given that there is no mention of a bomb load or explosion in the precis it seems very unlikely that the crash would have caused a 'crater'. Could this in fact just be an old lime quarry?

Errol

[RobFJ]

This is from another post I submitted to the forum last week

My mother today told me the following story :

During this part of the war, she lived in Hockwold, adjacent to RAF Feltwell. She remembers the day the plane came down (she heard the crash). It was in the daytime as she was in her office. She lived in the pub, the Red Lion on Hockwold Green which was on the Brandon Road. The billet for the aircrew was just down the road; they used the pub regularly – so she knew most of the aircrew. That evening she asked the pilots about the crash and they said it was Sergeant Arthur Colville's plane.

Arthur Colville was actually the pilot who replaced my father, Squadron Leader William Francis Jordan, after he was injured and in hospital from in another crash

Mum was a member of the WRVS and she visited Arthur in Ely Hospital until he was transferred to Stoke Mandeville (by which time he had been promoted to Squadron Leader). Two days after the crash, mum asked Arthur what caused it, he mentioned he was on a test flight but he did not know what had happened except that the ground crew had done their checks but the aircraft, in flight, just wasn’t fit to fly

Although he was in a wheelchair when he left Ely Hospital, mum is totally certain that Arthur had not lost his legs – although his injuries on this crash included fractured skull, arms, legs and ribs.

Hope this help add to the story

[Saintsman]

A slight thread creep from this interesting tale.

I'd be interested to learn how (or why) he was promoted from Sargeant to Squadron Leader in such a short period, especially as he would have been in hospital at the time.

[goofer3]

Norfolk Civil Defence War Diary;

28th February, 1942.
0930 Weather - Fine - Sunny - Moderate N.W.wind
2045 (8) From SOUTHERN. At 1600 hrs Wellington Bomber crashed Lime Kiln Farm, Brandon G209050. Machine burnt out. One of crew dead, 5 injured. No damage to property. Repeated to Police 2240

[radar101]

Colville

London Gazette 12 June 1958

"To be Ordinary Officers of the Military
Division of the said Most Excellent
Order :—

Wing Commander Ro.bert Arthur COLVILLB

(59075), Royal Ak Force"

OCR makes searching difficult!!

[EddieJL]

Has been very interesting reading all this information about my cousin. Robert Arthur Colville. He died on the 16 Oct 1961 in Kent at the R.A.F. Hospital Uxbridge, Middlesex.

[BEagle]

Tin legs

Not long after Bader had been fitted with his 'tin legs', he visited a relative for dinner. The relative had an elderly, rather grumpy fox terrier which always wanted the same spot under the dinner table.

Bader sat down and a low growl came from under the table. Whereupon he instinctively moved his legs away...then, being the rebellious chap he was, thought "The hell with this" and stretched his legs out again, with a mischevious grin.

The growling increased in tempo until the dog sprang at his ankles and attempted to bite one of them. There was a predictable loud metallic CLANG followed by a yelp from the dog, which shot out from under the table with its hair on end, trembling with confusion. It slunk off to a far corner and wouldn't go near Bader for the rest of his stay.

[Flixton Buck]

Feltwell Wimpy

Concerning incident on 28.02.42, Wellington Ser. No. X3355 which did indeed crash at Brandon next to George Harrington’s farmhouse.
It was a very cold February afternoon with temperatures below zero and by that time in the afternoon quite dark. The ground crew had been working all day to service the aircraft and were the last off the airfield for an air test. As was the tradition of the time, the skipper of the kite flew it and the Erks went along for the ride. The fire destroyed most of the aircraft and it proved to be impossible to ascertain the exact cause of the crash but it was suspected that in their haste to get away they forgot to open balance cock “A”, located under the Pilots seat which evened up the fuel in the tanks. The engines had enough fuel in the near empty tank for the run up but as soon as she started to lift off started to chuck it.
Sgt Colville turned back towards the Station; Lime Kiln farm was on the downward leg of the circuit, when the Wellington crashed. There was a very small fire behind one engine and Mr Harrington, the Farm foreman who lived at Lime Kiln, started pulling the men from the aircraft and taking them into the kitchen of his house. By the time he reached Colville the aircraft was fully ablaze, and the ammo on board was starting to explode. George noted that Colville was pretty banged up and took him inside the house, where he noted that one of the other men who he had placed on his kitchen table had passed away.
The injured were taken to Ely RAF Hospital and Colville was placed under the care of Sir Archie McIndoe a New Zealander of some repute. That night he was given the last rites but never the less he was a young man and gradually improved. As far as I know he kept his legs but may have had substantial metal plates fitted.
George Harrington was called up to meet the old King and was awarded the British Empire Medal for his troubles.
There was never a large crater at Lime Kiln Farm, but you can still find small pieces of Wimpy there when they plough the field where it crashed.

[luffers79]

Metal Legs Conflicting Submissions.

A few final statements from me - who started this thread.

1. We took off in a roughly Westerly direction and over a village just beyond the airfield boundary. VERY close was a large field with a crater of unknown depth that had water, grass (& a few shrubs, l think). We circled this at low level a few times whilst Wing Commander Colville pointed out where the front turret finished up etc.

Some contributors have mentioned a position of a crash which does NOT appear to be the one discussed by me - which was very close to the airfield.

Presumably, the crater has been filled in during the intervening years.

There was skin over the metal part of the leg l tapped. I wish I had asked how far down it went into his sock.

[NutLoose]

Thanks for bringing this back up, there has been a TV series on in the UK called SuperVet and he is doing exactly what you suggest, he mounts metal feet permanently to the bone of cats, probably titanium as the bone then grows to it, the skin is then grown onto a mesh over it to seal the ends, a foot is then mounted onto this...

See

Oscar | Specialist Orthopaedics + Neurosurgery | Fitzpatrick Referrals

http://www.fitzpatrickreferrals.co.u...pisode-1/oscar