Friendly fire WWII

[Dave Richardson]

Hi Brian

Here's a possible friendly fire incident for you. On the morning of 21/08/1942 Stirling bomber R9329 from 149 Squadron crashed in Devon returning from a mining op in the Gironde Estuary. All the crew were killed, my uncle was the front gunner. During my research I'm becoming convinced that the aircraft was fired on by the Plymouth AA guns. The crash site is about 3 miles NE of Plymouth. The following information leads me to believe it was a "friendly fire incident":

· In his book The Stirling Bomber by M.J.F. Bowyer records that the aircraft was "shot down by British A.A. guns"

· I have a scan of a letter from the National Archives to another of my uncles from 1980 (he was also researching the crash in pre-internet days), which has a note typed at the bottom ".. over Plymouth it was hit by anti-aircraft fire causing it to crash near the village of Cornwood"

· The RAF Air Historical Branch have confirmed that from the Form F765c "The aircraft was returning from a mining operation and from the accounts of the other aircraft in the area it is likely that this was the one heavily engaged by to ground defences and probably damaged. Return would therefore be made at low level." They went on to say that their records make no reference to British AA guns being involved.

· The location of the crash site suggests that the aircraft will have flown over Plymouth. I've spoken to to an eyewitness of the crash, who now is quite elderly but clearly remembers the aircraft flying up the valley on fire.

I don't know where to look now to try and get some confirmation one way or the other. Any thoughts?

Dave