Anson EG447: 17-7-1942 11 RS crashed into the sea NW of Rhyl.
At eight
o'clock in the evening, the Rhyl life-boat station was told that an Anson
aeroplane had come down in the sea, seven miles to the north-west, and that
Botha aeroplanes and a [RAF] speed boat were searching for it. The weather was
fine with a slight westerly wind and the sea calm. At 9.23 the Rhyl motor
life-boat The Gordon Warren was
launched, and reached the position given about ten o'clock. As she did so,
the motor fishing boat Hard Lines, of Fleetwood, picked up three airmen. One
of the three was
dead, and one unconscious. The life-boat took the unconscious man aboard,
and her crew gave him artificial respiration and signalled for a doctor to be
waiting when she put back to Rhyl. She landed the man at 10.25 and he was
taken to hospital, where he recovered. The news of the accident reached the
Llandudno life-boat station at 8.41 and the motor life-boat Thomas and Annie
Wade Richards was launched at 9.30. She spoke an R.A.F. sea rescue boat, which
had picked up one survivor, and the boat asked her to carry on the search and
then made for Beaumaris. After searching for about an hour the [Llandudno]
lifeboat
called at Rhyl at 11.35, and, learning there that all the men had been picked
up, she returned to her station, arriving at 1.15 next morning.
The aircraft was an Avro Anson from no. 11 Radio School, based at RAF Hooton Park
[Wirral], and was on a training exercise (ASV - air to sea vessel radar; introduced
in 1941) with
4 aboard. Though twin-engined, it suffered engine failure. The aircraft landed at sea and was a
total loss.
Casualties:
Flying Officer William Gilgour HISLOP (153046) Pilot Anson I EG447 buried
Linlithgow Cemetery.
Warrant Officer Stanley Percival LEWIS (1262616) Wireless Operator Anson I EG447
buried Chester (Blacon) Cemetery
The two trainees P/O's Farrett and Earnshaw survived.
See here. The wreckage of an Avro Anson was located in 1980s and two engines were salvaged by a diver based at Rhos on Sea. The location of the wreck was believed to be near the N. Rhyl Buoy. A survey in 2001 failed to locate any wreckage at that location; a report to the receiver of wrecks in 2001 states that "A single blade from a propeller and the remains of a flight level instrument have been recovered" with position given as alongside N Rhyl buoy.
Position of the [1993] report to HO was: within 100m of 53°22.265N, 3°34.277W, which was very near the location of the N. Rhyl Buoy in 1993 and is an area with depth charted as 5.6m nearby. This location had not been confirmed by diving on the wreck and is based on second-hand reports of the earlier engine recovery. This location is 4.1nm at 324° from Rhyl and 9.2nm at 73° from Llandudno. That position fits in reasonably well with reports of the location of survivors from the lifeboats given above [namely several/7 miles NW of Rhyl and 8 miles E of Llandudno; note Rhyl is 12 miles from Llandudno]. Moreover, there is no other report of the loss of an Avro Anson in this vicinity - hence the identification as EG447. The wreck site is not currently [2020] charted.