office 23
X3054 Memorial
Hamel Down
Dartmoor
Devon
England, UK. (OS Ref: SX712 806)
This stark granite memorial commemorates the loss of a Handley Page Hampden that crashed upon Hamel Down during the second world war. The memorial, re-dedicated in 1991, was commissioned by Lady
Marjorie Cecilia Wilson the mother of the pilot, Pilot Officer Robert Wilson.
Hampden x3054 was one of eight aircraft of 49 squadron tasked with bombing the Keroman submarine base at Lorient in Brittany on the night of 21/22 March 1941. Flying from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire just six of the aircraft took off between 18.23hrs and 22.28hrs of which two bombed the submarine pens and two were successful in dropping mines. Tragedy befell x3054 as it was returning from the French coast when in poor visibility it crashed into the high ground of Hamel Down at 22.50pm killing the 25 year-old-pilot and his three fellow crew members, Sgt Ronald Brames, Sgt Richard Ellis and Sgt Charles Lyon.
The memorial stone is inscribed with a cross and the following:
R A F
S. 49
R D W
C J L
R B
R L A E
21.3.41
During the re-dedication of 1991 a plaque was added to the southern side of the stone which states:
ON 22ND MARCH 1941
A ROYAL AIRFORCE BOMBER
49 SQDN SCAMPTON
CRASHED RETURNING FROM
OPERATIONS OVER FRANCE
THE 4 CREW WERE LOST
THIS MEMORIAL BEARS
THEIR INITIALS AND SQUADRON
NUMBER – COMMEMORATING
THEIR SELFLESS COURAGE
AND THAT OF FELLOW AIRMEN
WHO PERISHED ON DARTMOOR
1939 – 1945
THEIR SACRIFICE HELPED US
TO MAINTAIN FREEDOM
THE AIRCREW ASSOCIATION 1991
There is a tale that in 1971 a group of walkers were on Hamel Down on the night of 21st March, one of whom was a stranger to the area. Suddenly and without warning the visitor threw himself to the ground screaming with his hands over his head. Moments later when he had gathered himself he explained that he saw what looked like an old twin engined aircraft flying directly towards them. The other members of the party were at a loss to explain what had happened as they to a man had not heard or seen anything! This encounter was said to have occurred at around 11.00pm, roughly the same time of night that the Hampden crashed into the hillside thirty years previously. As an aside from this tale it is odd that the original inscription bears the date of the 21st March and the new plaque states the 22nd?
The eastern side of Hamel Down even to this day bears the evidence of wartime defences in the form of roting slim wooden posts, these were erected in 1940 to deter enemy aircraft or gliders.