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On the evening of Friday 25th September 1942, Armstrong
Whitworth Whitley BD232 of 24 Operational Training Unit
based at Honeybourne,Gloucester, took off on a night
cross country navigation exercise, the exercise would
be to North Wales, via Great Orme`s Head, where a fix
would be obtained for the return journey back to base.
During the flight, heavy cloud was encountered and at
19.34 hrs, the Wireless Operator who it can be imagined
was struggling to get a bearing, finally made a contact
and was given instructions to divert to Rhyl, though it
would appear that during the period of flying through
cloud, an error had already set the dice rolling,and
BD232 was now over the mountains of Snowdonia, above
the Conway river.
The crew must have been working on dead reckoning and
figured they were approaching Colwyn Bay, they were
flying at less that 3,000ft and making a slow descent
and it is thought a slight turn to Starboard, when the
aircraft struck the mountain south of Foel Fras, just
NW of the reservoir Llyn Dulyn, the Whitley broke up
and 3 of the crew were killed and 2 lay very badly
wounded and died in the early hours of the 26th from
their injuries, it is thought that the aircraft broke
in two, or struck wing first, as one of the survivors
of the initial impact was the pilot, if it had been a
head on crash, then he would almost certainly have died
instantly,The Whitley was not found until the 28th Sept
1942.
Crew of BD232.
Pilot: Sgt Charles Alexander Stuart. RNZAF. (Died 26th)
Navigator: Sgt Victor Ralph Smith. RAFVR.
Bomb Aimer: Sgt William Robert Hughes. RAFVR.
Wireless A/G:Sgt Joseph Patrick Hookey. RAFVR. (Canadian)
Air Gunner: Sgt John Hassall. RAFVR. (Died 26th)
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Whitley BD232 - N.Wales
