CATALINA Z2148 - 240 Sq. 19.1.1942. ARISDALE,YELL,SHETLAND.

                                                  

                                              

 The Catalina which took off from Invergordon on the 18th January was returning to base following a long patrol off the Norwegian coast in search of the German battleship `Tirpitz`, the weather that day had been very poor with increasing winds,snow and hail, and thick ice had formed on control surfaces making handling of the aircraft very sluggish and it became too much for the de-icer boots to cope with. 

       After a few hours in very cold conditions one of engines failed and although the Catalina could remain aloft on one engine, the burden of ice made it very difficult to maintain height so the pilot made a decision to find the nearest safe haven which would be Sullom Voe in the Shetland Isles, the navigator set a course and the pilot made the necessary corrections. 

      At around 01.00am on the 19^th the Catalina arrived over Shetland and it was pitch black and difficult in the snow squalls to decipher land from sea, however the navigator reckoned they were nearing Sullom Voe and were down to 1,500feet, a radio message was sent to lay on a flare path for landing, but despite a reply by the radio shack at Sullom, the message for some reason was not passed on to flying control, so no path was laid, the Catalina still flying on one engine was gradually losing height as it began to circle awaiting the flare path, it was during this circuit that the aircraft struck the hills above Arisdale burn,on the Island of Yell, around 9 miles NE of Sullom Voe,crashed aqlong the ground braking up as she went and on coming to a halt almost immediately burst into flames, killing 7 of the 10 man crew. 

Photo: Bob Richmond

L to R :  AC1 Richmond,Sgt Irvine, Sgt Pitcher and Sgt Breakspear.

 With ammo firing off and flames and carnage all over the place, one of the survivors Sgt Dan Lockyer a Wireless Op and Electrical Engineer had managed to drag himself free and on hearing cries from the cockpit, he returned to pull Co-Pilot Alex Helme from the blazing wreck, and as far as he knew nobody else had survived. 

 Helme having broken his leg and suffering shock it was left to Lockyer to get help, tumbling over bogs and streams with drifts of snow and ice and in a swirling mist, and soacked to the skin, Lockyer made his way South and eventually reached a small croft where the alarm was raised. 

 In the hours that followed a group of farmers and home guard went to the scene and found Alex Helme in poor state but alive, it was while at the farm that Dan Lockyer discovered a third man had survived, Rigger Robert `Jock` Richmond had clambered out of a hole in the rear fuselage and ducked into a water filled depression to avoid all the bullets firing everywhere, he was in shock but alive and apart from cuts and bruises, the luckiest of the three. 

                                             (Photo: Dan Lockyer)  

                                                             F/Sgt Dan Lockyer.                                           

 Wreckage from the Catalina still remains today and the seven men who lost their lives are still remembered by locals on Yell and through a Celtic cross erected at the scene and the memorial stone in the churchyard at Hamnavoe, there is also one of the propeller blades forming another remembrance outside the Old Haa museum at Burravoe. 

PILOT:    F/LT     H.GOOLDEN. RAFVR

CO-P:      F/O       A.HELME.        RAFVR

NAV:       P/O       L.G.SCHELL.   RCAF

F/E:          SGT     A.O.PITCHER.   RAFVR

W/AE:     F/S        D.E.C. LOCKYER. RAFVR.          

W/AG:    SGT      L.A.ROWE.      RAFVR

W/AG:    SGT      A.R.BREAKSPEAR. RAFVR

W/AG:    SGT      E.HENOWY.   RAFVR.

W/AG:     SGT     S. IRVINE. RAFVR.

ENG:       AC1     R. RICHMOND.

    

  (Photo: Dave Earl)

Above:  A wing and large burned area where the Catalina crashed at Wila Mina Hoga, Arisdale,Yell in 2006.

  (Photo: Dave Earl)

Above: One of the two Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 Twin Wasp radial engines still on site in 2006.  

  Photos David Earl 

Above: The headstone for the seven unlucky crew members in a collective grave at Hamnavoe.Yell and on the right the 9 ft stainless steel Celtic cross erected at the crash site in September 1991 by members of the island communtity.

 

 

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