As a 14 year old Swiss boy, Frédéric Haldimann witnessed the crash in the Alps of 467 Squadron’s Lancaster ED531 PO-T on the Turin raid of 12/13 July 1943.  Substantiated with meteorological information, historical facts and his personal memories, Frédéric tells the sequence of events and gives his views as to exactly what caused the aircraft to crash that night.  

    Even at five thousand feet, 12 July 1943 had been a very warm day in the spruce forests and meadows high up along the slopes of the wide but deep Rhone River valley in the Swiss Alps. It was the summer holiday season and many families with children were enjoying the stimulating mountain air in and around the dark-housed isolated villages perched on the foothills and well into the side valleys running southwards from the deep furrow cut by the Rhone River. Sion, the capital city of the canton of Valais with its population of about 10, 000 and the adjoining airfield occasionally used by the Swiss Air Force lay sleepy amongst the vineyards shimmering in the July heat.  

    On more than one occasion during that spring and summer, the deep quiet of the nights had reverberated from the deep and regular drone of aircraft engines, reminders of the proximity of hostilities and darkly underlining the dangerous situation of the country wedged as it was between the two Axis powers, Germany and Italy.  

    Dusk on that evening of the 12 July had brought the usual marked drop in temperature as the western horizon had been invaded by menacing clouds. The air was sultry and it had been more difficult than usual to marshal into bed the children in the small summer house, but finally the candle had been snuffed and the deep quiet of the mountains had descended.  

     The distant rumbling of an approaching thunderstorm was now heard more distinctly. Gradually the humming drone of aircraft engines emerged in between the deeper rumblings of the threatening thunderstorm, when suddenly, the night was rent by a flash of intense light followed by a sound which seemed sharper than the previous thunderclaps. With eyes wide open but heavy with sleep, the children saw behind curtains of heavy rain as the thunderstorm broke overhead a deep purple glow near the ridge of the next mountain and heard the faint crackling of exploding ammunition.  

    A few days later, a daylong hike to the site of what had clearly been a crashed aircraft revealed at the tree line the wreckage of Lancaster ED531 and the extent of the tragedy. But what had happened and exactly how?  

    Lancaster III ED531/467Sqn had been ordered together with 619 other Lancasters from AV Roe at Chadderton in 1941 and built during the winter 1942/43. It had been taken on unit charge on 26 January 1943 and had accumulated 230 hrs flying time by 12 July 1943.  

    The following raids saw ED531 in action with the Squadron: St.Nazaire (28-02/01-03-43), Berlin (01/02-03-43), Essen (05/06-03-43), Berlin (27/28-03-43), Essen (03/04-04-43), Pilsen (16/17-04-43), Dortmund (23/24-05-43), Düsseldorf (15/16-05-43), Düsseldorf (11/12-06-43), Bochum (12/13-06-43), Oberhausen (14/15-06-43) and Cologne (03/04-07-43). The code letter "T" was allocated sometime in April after the previous PO-T, ED524/467, had been lost over Essen with S/L A M Paape DFC & Bar on 03/04-04-43.  

Click the crew line to view the missions.

    On 12 July 1943, ED531 PO-T and crew (F/O G D Mitchell RAAF, Sgt B K H Evans, P/O H R St. George RAAF, F/O W H Morgan, F/S J M Maher RAAF, F/S H B Bolger RAAF, F/S A D Terry RAAF) took off from Bottesford at 22.49 for the long trip to Turin in Northern Italy. The force comprising 224 Lancasters met adverse meteorological conditions on the outbound flight. The flight plan called for a direct routing across occupied France to a turning point marked by PFF over Lake Annecy south-west of Geneva in France, and from there on an easterly heading across the French/Italian Alps to the target in the Po Valley. The return trip was planned again across the French/Italian Alps to the Atlantic coast in order to reach open water before daybreak, thus avoiding possible opposition from German day-fighters based in France . This extended routing involving the circumnavigation of the Brest Peninsula took into account the reduced hours of darkness available in summer.

     The meteorological situation was dominated by a low pressure centre over the Faroes with a secondary outburst of polar maritime air reaching a line Stockholm-Danzig-Frankfurt-Bordeaux as a cold front during the evening. A high pressure area was stationary over the Biscay and flying conditions over E and SE England were good in the early evening with brisk westerly to south-westerly surface winds at 10-15 kts, good visibility and a broken layer of Stratocumulus/Cumulus. Visibility was expected to decrease during the second half of the night when the clouds would tend to disappear with a small risk of fog forming locally after 04.00.

    The initial leg of the route across France to the Massif Central took the force over a broken, gradually scattered Stratocumulus layer. From about Clermont onward, more Stratocumulus and the first layers of Altostratus had been encountered. Over eastern France, the force caught up with the cold front and ran into organised thunderstorms with embedded Cumulonimbus with moderate and locally severe turbulence and icing. These adverse conditions forced 16 aircraft to abort the mission rather than trying to climb over the Alps with the peak of Mont Blanc (15' 771 ft) not far from the briefed track. At Lancaster operating altitudes, the upper winds had shifted from north-westerly tailwinds to south-west and picked up speed and a number of aircraft drifted over Switzerland across the Jura Mountains towards the foothills of the Swiss Alps and into more developing thunderstorms. A Swiss flak battery near the Col du Marchairuz on the Jura Mountains reported firing on unidentified aircraft observing hits. Some explosive bombs were jettisoned near the hamlet of Surpierre in the canton of Vaud without causing much damage or victims.

    It is assumed that the crew of ED531 decided to press on to the marked turning point in spite of these difficulties. Still on the original heading, they overflew south western Switzerland while drifting to the northeast. They penetrated over the Rhone Valley, trying to identify the turning point at Lake Annecy but may have mistaken Lake Léman for the waypoint. Having lost altitude in the process and finding themselves trapped between rising ground and lit-up Cumulonimbus thunderclouds, they flew a race-track course, dropped a flare and jettisoned their bomb load including a 4' 000 lb cookie in an attempt lighten their aircraft. Moments later, ED531 brushed its port wing against the side of a north-south mountain ridge at approximately 6' 000 ft, swung violently to port and slammed onto the ground, loosing its No. 4 engine in the process which was flung 700 m away and caught fire. Picture below.

    The official report established by the Swiss military authorities (Ref. BAR E 27/14572, Swiss Federal Archives, Bern) is dated 20 July 1943. It states that the aircraft was first observed at 01.02 local time in a left turn overhead Sion. After releasing a flare, it flew twice towards the South and jettisoned a high-explosive bomb and incendiaries, which hit a rocky slope dislodging 50-60 m3 of rocks, but caused no further damage. Flying again on a northerly heading out of the side valley towards the open Rhone Valley , the aircraft made a narrow left turn and hit the ground under an angle of approximately 30 degrees. The report then goes on to describe the wreckage, listing the equipment, which could be recovered (e.g. a dinghy, 760 rounds of ammunition, flying boots, etc.). No documents were found but the aircraft was identified as a Lancaster, Serial No. ED531, this information being followed by an indication that this identification may not be complete. A remark concerns two holes caused by projectiles (oval shape, 6 by 7 and 12 by 14 mm) in a fuel tank.

    The picture below shows the layout of the wreckage from which it will be seen that ED531 hit at reduced forward speed and carried no large explosive bombs.

    The Swiss army removed 12 truckloads of wreckage. The crew - only the body of Sgt Bolger who had flown in the tail-gunner position had escaped the fury of the blaze - found a permanent resting-place in the municipal cemetery at Vevey.

    In summary, ED531 and her crew fell victim to a combination of circumstances from which there had been no escape. On the outbound leg, the Alps were usually crossed to the southwest of the Swiss border where the highest peak ( Mont Blanc , 15' 771 ft) was normally easily identified even on dark nights. On this night, 12/13 July 1943, the stronger than forecast south-westerly upper winds which preceded the cold front approaching the Alps across France had upset flight plans, causing a number of aircraft to miss the turning point and to drift into Swiss airspace. Was Swiss flak instrumental in precipitating the events that befell ED531? The question remains open. The sequence of events indicates that having penetrated the frontal build-ups which had caused other crews to turn back, ED531 with its airworthiness strongly impaired by icing, turbulence and possibly flak damage while still carrying most of the fuel tankage and a full war load lost height and was trapped at medium altitude by strong thunderstorms over terrain offering no escape route.

    Another Lancaster participating in the Turin raid crashed into a mountainside overlooking the southern shoreof Lake Léman at 00.55 local time. ED412 EM-Q of 207 Squadron was flown by P/O H. Badge and crew, and had taken off at 22.35 from Langar. While it is supposed that Swiss flak may be implied in this crash, the difficult weather conditions prevailing at this time and place with widespread thunderstorms with icing as well as shifting upper winds were most probably a contributing factor. Here again, there were no survivors.

Frédéric Haldimann, Member BCHS  

Geneva, November/December 2001