Below - orange dates indicate a Cranage accident, green dates indicate an encounter with the enemy.

1941 arrived with an inspection visit from H.R.H. The Duke of Kent closely followed by several days of heavy snowfall. The inspection by the Duke on 16 January saw approval of the living quarters, dining halls and the training facilities, had he been there only three days later he might not have been quite so impressed. Snowfall across most of the country left an area from Derbyshire to North Wales and the Midlands up through Lancashire with as much as 3 to 4 feet in places, for those in Scotland it was double these figures. Flying time was restricted while plans were made and implemented to keep the runways, taxiways and other essential areas clear of the snow.

While the exact date is unknown, at some point in 1941 a brick control tower was constructed at the east side of the main camp. Being almost central to the airfield it had a perfect, unrestricted view across the whole airfield. The drawing number for this building is listed as No. 6A 473/41, but it seems no one has any idea of what it looked like, other than it was a single storey building with several windows. [If there is anyone with drawings or images of one of these specific buildings I would very much like to hear from you, please see the contact page for information].

11 January, Hurricane V7130 crashes on landing. Pilot Officer [Plt. Off.] Lauder escapes uninjured.

12 January, Hurricane P3663 crashes on landing, Sergeant [Sgt.] Kneath escapes uninjured.

15 January. Boulton Paul Defiant N3389 flew in giving the pilots, gunners and air crew a chance to familiarise themselves with the aircraft.

16 January. The camp inspection by H.R.H. The Duke of Kent. He inspects the institute and dining halls and is pleased with what he sees.

26 January, getting lost on a return flight from Tangmere to Cranage, two pilots land their Miles Magister T9833 in a field. Unfortunately they crash into trees on take off wrecking the plane and injuring Flying officer [Fl. Off.] Mann, Fl. Off. H.A. 'Hank' Sprague escaped without injury.

February. 96 Squadron receive extra Defiant and Hurricane aircraft. The Squadron is then split into A and B flights and is stationed both at Cranage and Squires Gate in order to cover as much of the north west, predominantly Liverpool and Manchester, as possible.

1 February, Hurricane P8813 crashes on landing, Sgt. Peacock escapes uninjured.

3 February, Hurricane W9159 is forced to land in a field near Tarporley. Sgt. Taylor escapes uninjured.

8 February. Czechoslovakian No.312 Squadron pilots Fl. Off. Vlastimil Vesely and Fl. Off. Josef Kloboucnik arrive to join No.96 Squadron.

10 February, Hurricane V6947 is forced to land in a field at Sutton Hall Farm. Fl. Off. Josef Kloboucnik suffers minor injuries.

12 February, Hurricane V6886 makes a forced landing at R.A.F. Shawbury during a night flight. The plane was severely damaged though Fl. Off. Victor Verity escapes uninjured.

15 February. No.96 Squadron takes delivery of Defiant aircraft N1803; N3327; N3338; N3433; N3434 & N3436.

15 February, Anvro Anson K8817 is written off whilst stationary. Sgt. Alfred E. Scott collided with the Anson in his Hurricane V7951. The Hurricane is repairable and Sgt. Scott walks away with minor injuries.

15 February, Hurricane P3833 crashes on landing. Fortunately Pl. Off. Lauder was uninjured.

15 February, Hurricane V7591 is also damaged on landing and luckily Sgt. Scott also walks away uninjured.

Cranage is known for its bad weather, especially fog, and it may have been this that caused these accidents.

17 February, Anvro Anson K6283 crashes near Leek in Staffordshire. Sadly Sgt. A.M. Owen is killed.

17 February, Anson K6290 is damaged beyond repair after crash landing at Pickmere in fog.

17 February, Defiant N3433 ends up in a ditch after a forced landing in poor weather at R.A.F. Sealand. The crew walk away with nothing more than a few scratches though N3433 has to be taken to Reid & Sigrist on the 12th Mach for repairs.

12 March. A second delivery of Defiant aircraft arrives  - N1766, N1767 & N3374. The Squadron receives further deliveries in April & May to bring the final tally to 21.

12 March, Merseyside is attacked by 486 aircraft of Luftflotte 2 & 316. 303 tons of high explosive bombs, 1,982 incendiaries and 60 parachute mines are dropped throughout the night. Over 600 people are killed with nearly as many injured. Sgt. Robin McNair from No.96 Squadron was on patrol over Birkenhead in Hurricane V7752 when he spots Heinkel He.111P-4 No.2989 ahead of him. Coming up from the lower rear of the German plane he closed to around 75 yards before firing two 4 second bursts causing both of the Heinkel engines to fail. He follows the plane down to 3000 ft before pulling away to avoid the barrage balloon cables. This is the first confirmed 'Kill' for No.96 Squadron.

12 March, Fl. Off. Vlastimil Vesely [R.A.F.V.R.] and Sgt. Heycock [R.A.F.V.R.] flying Defiant N1803 also have a run-in with a He.111. All 4 guns on the Defiant jam and while he is waiting for Sgt. Heycock to resolve the problem Vesely is hit in the chest, shoulder and arm by return fire. Regaining consciousness he manages to pull the plane out of a spin and fly back to Cranage where he is sent off to hospital. Sgt. Heycock is uninjured.

12 March, Sgt's Taylor and Broughton are out in Defiant T3954 when they spot a He.111K. They give chase but once again the guns jam after a very short burst of fire and they can do no more than return to base.

13 March, During a test flight in Defiant N1766 Fl. Off. Paul Rabone and Fl. Off. Ritchie suffer both radio and engine failure. The pair have to bail-out and the plane goes on to crash just west of Derwent Reservoir in Derbyshire. Both officers land without injury.

Wreckage of N1766 is still on the hillside, although the Rolls Royce engine and propeller were removed in 1980 and given to the Air and Space Museum, now a branch of Manchester Museum of Science and Industry at Castlefields, Manchester.

14 March, Fl. Off. Victor Verity is out patrolling the Welsh border in Hurricane N6923 when he encountered a Ju.88. As with McNair, two days before, he approaches the Junkers from the lower rear and at around 75 yards starts firing. The Ju.88 immediately dives to the starboard and is spotted and tracked by the Wrexham searchlights. Verity is unable to see the enemy, due to the lights blinding him and returns to base where he claims the aircraft as a probable 'Kill'.

15 March, Defiant T3954 crashes on landing. Sgt's W.B. Angell and J.E. Goldsmith are uninjured and the aircraft is repairable.

21 March, Anson K6248 crashes at Rednal in Shropshire, where tragically all five of the crew, Plt. Off. Padfield; Pilot under training Sgt. Hill; Plt. Off. Minnet, Sgt. Burgess and Sgt. Hewish are killed. Plt. Off. Padfield and Sgt. Hill are buried at St. John the Evangelist Church, Byley, situated at the south west corner of the airfield.

27 March, Defiant N3389 crashes on high ground south of Wellingore, Lincolshire, during a cross-country night flying exercise. Sadly Sgt's W.B. Angell and J.E. Goldsmith are killed.

30 March, Defiant N3376 crashes due to engine failure. Sgt. Ralls orderes Sgt. Phillips to Bale-out and both pilot and gunner escape without injury. The aircraft eventually comes down in Park Road, Gatley.

April. Squadron Leader R.J. Burns takes command of No.96 Squadron

2 May, No.2 S.o.A.N. attendee Fl. Off. Peter Wakeford talks his way into a flight in No.96 Squadrons’ Hurricane V7261. The Hurricane catches fire and while Wakeford survives the crash, V7261 does not.

3 May, Fl. Off. Victor Verity attacks Ju.88A-6 over mid-Cheshire just before midnight. When the port engine of the Junkers fails, the pilot orders the crew to bale out. Two of the crew, pilot Lt. H. Glaenzinger and wireless operator Ufz. G. Harmgart are killed, one as a result of chute failure and the other as a result of not fastening his harness. The engineer, Feldwebel H. Richter lands safely and is taken prisoner when he enters a farm building and comes face to face with the farmer and his farm hands. The observer and co-pilot Feldwebel (Sergeant) Hans Stettwieser also survives and after leaving the burning aircraft, damaging his knee in the process, he lands in a river [this could have been the Dane, the Weaver or even the Wincham Brook] and is captured by the Wincham Home Guard. The Junkers finally crashes in a field at Park Farm, Lostock Green. Fl. Off. Verity claims this as a 'Kill' for No.96 Squadron, the first using a Defiant.

The letter, shown to the right, is from Dr Hans Stettwieser who was the observer and co-pilot on the Ju.88A-6 mentioned above.

In his letter, dated 2 March, 1977 Dr Stettwieser confirms that he was the “mere youth of about 18” on board the aircraft.

 

 

 

 

Click on the letter to view a larger version in a new window.

A photograph of the grave for Lt. H. Glaenzinger and Ufz. G. Harmgart can be seen here RAF Cranage by Roland Griffiths (the photograph is the final image of the slide show.

In an e-mail from Dave Crewe, whose Grandfather was a policeman at the time of the above event, Dave explains how his grandfather and father went to visit the site where Dr Stettwieser landed and it is thought to be the Wincham Brook, behind the Slow and Easy pub on the A559, Manchester Road, Northwich. Dave’s father remembers that the water was very green, and this was thought to be from the dye that was released from the clothes or equipment that Dr Stettwieser was wearing. Possibly this dye was to aid rescue if he’d come down in the sea.

3 May, Fl. Off. Victor Verity mounts an attack on He.111H-5 A1+CK. The aircraft finally comes down near Morpeth, Northumberland were all the crew are taken prisoner.

7 May, At 1.00am a Defiant of No.256 Squadron is shot down over Widnes by a Ju.88. The crew bale-out safely.

8 May, 166 aircraft of Luftflotte 3 bomb Merseyside in the early hours of the morning. Over 29,000 incendiaries are dropped along with a considerable amount of high explosives. Heinkel Je.111H-2 is attacked by a Defiant which is thought to have been Fl. Off. Verity. Verity is on patrol in N1803 when he comes across the He111 en-route to Liverpool, the following fight lasts a full ten minutes before the enemy aircraft loses control over Chester and crashes at Egerton Hall Farm near Malpas.

8 May, Major Dietrich H. Von Ziehlberg and his crew are killed when their aircraft, Ju.88A-5 F1+AD crashes into the hillside at Moss End Farm, Gradbach. Sgt Robin McNair is the pilot of the Defiant responsible for their demise.

8 May, Sgt. Scott, flying Hurricane Mk.I V6887 ZJ-A, claims another probable on a Ju.88 over north Wales.

20 June, Sgt. Hampshire crash lands Defiant N3338 and escapes without injury.

20 June,  Sgt. Ralls makes a forced belly landing in Defiant N3510, he escaped without injury.

22 June, Defiant T4071 ZJ-P flies into the ground and explodes at Eddisbury Hill near Delamere, Cheshire. Plt. Off. R. Smithson and gunner Sgt. Ivan N. Robinson are on a test flight from Squires Gate. Unfortunately both men are killed in the crash.

7 August, on this evening Fl. Off. Verity with Sgt. Wake take the final 'Kills' for No.96 Squadron while based at R.A.F. Cranage. Their claim for the evening is a He.111 destroyed, a Ju.88 destroyed and a Ju.88 probable. Later in the month both pilot and gunner are decorated for their part in the defence of Liverpool. Fl. Off. Verity received the DFC, Sgt. Wake the DFM.

31 August, Plt. Off. E.H. Jacob and his gunner Sgt. Arnold are injured when Defiant N3383 has engine failure and crashes in a field next to Sandbach Grammar School.

September. Vickers-Armstrongs open their shadow factory at Byley. Built less than a thousand yards from the southwest corner of the airfield the factory is made up of two large steel hangers which are connected to the finishing shed, on the airfield, by a towing track. The combined output of the factory’s at Byley and Broughton, Chester, between now and September 1945, is 5,548 Wellington aircraft. Just under a third of those are assembled at Byley, an average of around seven and a half a week.

1 September, Defiant T3924 is written off when Plt. Off. Keprt undershoots his approach to Cranage and hits a tree. Luckily neither he nor his gunner Sgt. Harder are hurt.

4 September, Plt. Off. J.R. Duncan and air gunner Sgt. F.A. Allcroft are killed when their Defiant N3447 crashes while out on a night flight and catches fire.

26 September, No.11 Service Flying Training School [S.F.T.S.] based at Shawbury suffer five accidents at Cranage, two on the 26th and three on the 29th, while using it as a satellite airfield during maintenance of their own runways.

16 October, Defiant T3921 crashes into Shining Tor, near the Cat & Fiddle pub, on the A537 from Macclesfield to Buxton, injuring both Plt. Off. M.G. Hilton and Sgt. H.W. Brunkhorst.

21 October. R.A.F. Wrexham is declared operational and is complete with hard runways. It becomes the new home of No.96 Squadron with it's two Hurricane and fourteen Defiant aircraft. The move comes too late for the defence of the north west as the Luftwaffe efforts are concentrated on other areas of the country.

22 October. Two Airspeed Oxfords transfer from No.11 S.F.T.S. for night flying training through October and November.

26 October, immediately after take off, Oxford I N4954 loses height, strikes a tree and collides with the roof of an out-building at the Smithy on the B5081. Sgt. Baker is instructing L.A.C. W.C. Thompson in night flying when the accident occurs. Both men receive serious injury and are taken to hospital where, eighteen hours later, L.A.C. Thompson passes away.

11 November, Oxford AS893 overshoots the runway, hits an obstruction and overturns. The damage is bad enough that AS893 is written off.

24 November, Corporal P.C. Allard of the Free French Air Force is flying Oxford II X6948 on a solo night training exercise when he crashes. Sadly he dies in the accident and the Oxford is written off.

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