📍Crash of Wellington W5557 with six Polish airmen of 305 Squadron (305 Dywizjon) in 1941
Having been to the remains of RAF Lindholme I received a message regarding a memorial to a crashed polish aircraft. I've heard tales of a plane on Hatfield Moors that was visible when the peat bogs were low. Today I went out to find the memorial
🛩️ On the night of 26th / 27th September 1941, the crew of this 305 Squadron aircraft undertook an operational flight to bomb Cologne and took off from base at Lindholme at 19:27hrs. All appears to have gone without incident outbound and over the target area. Fog was over Lindholme during the early hours of 27th September 1941, and while it was clear air above 500 feet, fog was seriously affecting visibility below. Added to that, other aircraft that were returning to Lindholme were short on fuel, so there was a possibility that Wellington W5557 may also have been low on fuel or even run out of fuel. Having flown back into the general area of Lindholme airfield, the crew lowered their undercarriage and were making an approach to land when it was thought that the pilot either misjudged the height the aircraft was flying, or it had run out of fuel and the pilot was attempting a forced landing. The aircraft struck trees and then crashed on Hatfield Moor, just short of the airfield at 01:30hrs. Sadly, three members of the Polish crew were killed in the crash, and a fourth died just over twenty-four hours later in Hospital in Doncaster Hospital.
The body found in 1987 cannot have been part of the W5557 crew, as in the casualty file (AIR81/9282), it states they were all buried on the 30th September 1941, and no one was missing - Source (Yorkshire Aircraft)
Pilot
Sgt Eugeniusz Buszko (aged 27)
Killed on impact
Wireless Operator
Sgt Jerzy Sławomir Leyche (aged 23)
Killed on impact
Air Gunner
Sgt Wiktor Wasilenko (aged 18)
Killed on impact
Second Pilot
Sgt Tadeusz Korczyk (aged 27)
Died of injuries
Navigator
FL/t Stanisław Barzdo
Injured - Later killed in action in Germany May 1942 (aged 26).
Air Gunner
Sgt Zdzisław Pisarek
Injured - Passed away in Pennsylvania (aged 74).
Rest easy gentlemen