Avro Lancaster I R5489 Memorial
Branston
The village of Branston lies around four miles southeast of Lincoln and close to the airfield at Waddington. As the year 1942 progressed, the Avro Lancaster was steadily re-equipping more of Bomber Command's squadrons. From February through to July of the same year, 200 Lancaster Is were constructed at Chadderton. Within this batch, R5489 was taken on charge with No. 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron at Waddington on 10 May 1942 and was coded KM-G (although the Operations Record Book (ORB) states a coding of KM-X). The aircraft began operations with the unit on 15 June and was initially tasked to support Coastal Command during the Battle of the Atlantic, detached to Nutts Corner, Northern Ireland. In total, it participated in two convoy patrols (dropping depth charges on a U-boat on one occasion) and ten operations over France and Germany, sustaining flak damage during a sortie to Duisburg.
On 16 August 1942, R5489 was again in the air, but this time for a training flight to familiarise the crew's newly qualified flight engineer, Sgt John 'Jack' Fletcher, with the Lancaster. Returning to base after four hours and preparing to land, the inner starboard engine caught fire. The pilot, Sgt Ron Easom, ordered an immediate shutdown of the troubled Merlin, but Fletcher feathered the starboard outer by mistake. Unfortunately, this action induced the bomber to yaw and then stall, and with little in the way of height, there was nothing Easom could do to save the situation. As a result, the machine crashed to Branston's south side at 19:15hrs, where it broke in two, with fire taking hold from the ruptured fuel tanks.
Sgt David Pullinger RNZAF (bomb aimer) died in the aircraft's nose, while Fletcher was severely injured due to the impact. He died shortly after in Bracebridge Heath Hospital. The other five crew members, Easom, Sgts Lesley Henry Fox (navigator), Frank Walshaw (w/op), Flt Sgt L. Berrigan (rear gunner) and LAC T. Black (ground crew), survived and were rescued by Dick Taylor and Fred Kirk, local residents from the village. Returning to operations, Sgts Eason and Fox's luck ran out on 9 November 1942, when Lancaster I W4180 KM-D failed to return from a sortie to Hamburg with the loss of all crew. Walshaw survived the war, and from the available evidence, Berrigan did too.
In 2015 land was earmarked in Branston for a future housing development to be built by Taylor Wimpey. Within the scheme, a memorial garden was planned to commemorate the loss of R5489, and this has now been completed. It consists of a stone with a plaque listing the crew and those who helped with the rescue. Opposite, there is a bench with the names of the two who died in the crash inscribed on a brass plaque. As a finishing touch, some roads within the development are named after crew members from the Lancaster and their rescuers. It is heartening to see the construction of this new memorial within a modern housing estate, as it will help inform younger and future generations of what has gone before.
Note: Frank Walshaw has donated two commemorative plaques to the Branston Home Guard Social Club. Also, in the upstairs bar, a display case contains small items from R5489 excavated by the Lincolnshire Aircraft Recovery Group.
On 16 August 1942, R5489 was again in the air, but this time for a training flight to familiarise the crew's newly qualified flight engineer, Sgt John 'Jack' Fletcher, with the Lancaster. Returning to base after four hours and preparing to land, the inner starboard engine caught fire. The pilot, Sgt Ron Easom, ordered an immediate shutdown of the troubled Merlin, but Fletcher feathered the starboard outer by mistake. Unfortunately, this action induced the bomber to yaw and then stall, and with little in the way of height, there was nothing Easom could do to save the situation. As a result, the machine crashed to Branston's south side at 19:15hrs, where it broke in two, with fire taking hold from the ruptured fuel tanks.
Sgt David Pullinger RNZAF (bomb aimer) died in the aircraft's nose, while Fletcher was severely injured due to the impact. He died shortly after in Bracebridge Heath Hospital. The other five crew members, Easom, Sgts Lesley Henry Fox (navigator), Frank Walshaw (w/op), Flt Sgt L. Berrigan (rear gunner) and LAC T. Black (ground crew), survived and were rescued by Dick Taylor and Fred Kirk, local residents from the village. Returning to operations, Sgts Eason and Fox's luck ran out on 9 November 1942, when Lancaster I W4180 KM-D failed to return from a sortie to Hamburg with the loss of all crew. Walshaw survived the war, and from the available evidence, Berrigan did too.
In 2015 land was earmarked in Branston for a future housing development to be built by Taylor Wimpey. Within the scheme, a memorial garden was planned to commemorate the loss of R5489, and this has now been completed. It consists of a stone with a plaque listing the crew and those who helped with the rescue. Opposite, there is a bench with the names of the two who died in the crash inscribed on a brass plaque. As a finishing touch, some roads within the development are named after crew members from the Lancaster and their rescuers. It is heartening to see the construction of this new memorial within a modern housing estate, as it will help inform younger and future generations of what has gone before.
Note: Frank Walshaw has donated two commemorative plaques to the Branston Home Guard Social Club. Also, in the upstairs bar, a display case contains small items from R5489 excavated by the Lincolnshire Aircraft Recovery Group.
