| Found the two 59 Squadron losses.
19 June 1944
59 Squadron
Liberator GR.V
Serial FL990. 'A'
Crew.
F/L. Rowland Wade.
F/S. John Anderson.
F/S. James Steer.
F/S. Norman Cooper. RAAF Wop/Ag
F/S. Kenneth Apitz. RAAF Wop/Ag
F/S. John Haines.
F/O. James Parsons.
Sgt. John Cook.
Within minutes of taking off from Ballykelly the aircraft collided with Shrove Hill, just across Lough Foyle at Greencastle. At the time of the crash the mountain was shrouded in such dense fog that the Liberator was initially located by the sound of exploding munitions by those first at the scene. The aircraft hit the hill at a height of 1,500 feet and slid along the ground a distance of 200 yards.
The Irish Army recorded the time of the crash at 1.10pm, but a local man who, as a teenager, visited the site shortly after the crash, puts the time between noon and 12.30. The 59 Squadron ORB gives no take-off time.
__________________
On weald of Kent I watched once more
Again I heard that grumbling roar
Of fighter planes; yet none were near
And all around the sky was clear
Borne on the wind a whisper came
'Though men grow old, they stay the same'
And then I knew, unseen to eye
The ageless Few were sweeping by
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