Rapide G-ACPY lost 3 June 1941

[Brian]

Many thanks, Stig, much appreciated.

Give my regards to the Trolls!

Cheers
Brian

[paulmcmillan]

What makes this very sad is it appears a whole family was killed...

Crew: Captain W.D. Anderson DFC (Australian)

5 Passengers:

Mrs Sheelagh Leggitt - Secretary to Sir Walter Monckton, Director-General of the Ministry of Information. Who had been on holiay at Penzance

Mr John Leggitt - Husband, Secetary of Anglo-Egyptian Chamber of Commerce in London

Jeannie Leggitt aged 11

Romalita Leggitt aged 9

Mrs. Georgina Griffith (Mother of Mrs Leggitt)

Mrs. Leggitt was in her early 30's and was previously secretary to Lord Astor, and was only married the previous August, so probably Step Mother to the children

It appears the flight was from the Scilly Isles to Penzance

[Nick Beale]

The Rapide service to the Scillies continued into (I think) the mid 1960s and I'm pretty sure that when it ended someone wrote a book about it with a title like "Airway to the Isles" or "Air Bridge to the Isles."

[Brian]

Thanks Paul and Nick

What a sad story. Thanks for sharing. War is shit!

Cheers
Brian

[Juha]

Brian
You can find the story of the Dragon in AE 66 Nov/Dec 1996. According to it G-ACPY was shot down by a He 111 from I./KG 28.

HTH
Juha

[Leendert]

Also read somewhere that Dragon was victim of a chance encounter with a He-111 returning from an abortive raid on carrier HMS Indomitable at Barrow-in-Furness shipyard.
Six Hurricanes of No 87 Squadron, detached to St Mary's on 19th May 1941, had been withdrawn only four days prior to incident.

Leendert

[Brian]

Thanks guys,

An off the cuff enquiry has resulted in a very interesting, if sad, story. I hope to use it in a future work! Thanks again.

Juha, any chance of you scanning the AE account for me?

Cheers
Brian

[Juha]

Sorry Brian, but I don't own a scanner. Maybe some other forum members have both a scanner and the AE. I only glanced the article but Leendert description is same that what I glanced from the article, at least the crew, of which at least the commander of the He 111 H-4 was named, has orders to attack a British carrier In???? at some Barrow-??? shipyard. The attack was made from behind and above and the Dragon was shot down by the front gun of Heinkel. One engine was hit and the Dragon banked and went to sea. The Dragon was contracted by government and was camouflaged. Civilians were allowed to use it if there were vacant seats, that’s why Leggitt family was travelling in it. The tragedy was “seen” by British radar operators.

Sorry
Juha

[Henk Welting]

Captain William Donald ANDERSON - DFC - is listed by the CWGC in "Air crashes at sea". In same register are for 3-6-1941, and what may have been the passengers:
Mrs Georgina E.L. GRIFFITH
Mr John LEGGITT
Mrs Sheelagh M. LEGGITT
Jeanine LEGGITT - age 11
Ronalita LEGGITT - age 9

Henk.