Richard John Fuller

Sergeant V X Kirby P), Sergeant R J Fuller N), Sergeant E A McCord (W/Op), Sergeant J L Lloyd, (Ob) Sergeant I R Styles (AG)(All RNZAF): killed 11 Operational Training Unit, aircraft accident, Maplebeck, Nottinghamshire. Edward Alexander McCord was buried in Ireland.

‘The sound of aircraft engines had been heard around Maplebeck during the evening (of October 15th 1942) but that was quite normal; after all RAF Ossington was just a few minutes flying time away to the north east. Witnesses to this air crash said that the sound of aircraft above them came closer and that suddenly, a large twin-engine aeroplane which was obviously out of control, appeared out of the clouds. It dived into the ground and there was a devastating explosion which spread fire all around the ten acre field at the farm.

The fire was intense and lit up the night sky so that the glow could be seen at Eakring (3.6 miles away). There was no possibility that any of the crew on board could have survived the impact and no parachutes had been seen from crew escaping from the aircraft. All the grass was alight and they could not get into the field so they called out to see if any of the crew had been thrown clear and were lying injured somewhere amongst the wreckage.. As they used one of the hedges to provide some shelter, bullets from the aircraft’s defensive machine guns exploded in the heat, sending deadly metal whizzing around the site.

… Fences around the farm presented an obstacle to the emergence crews trying to get to the wrecked aircraft and these were quickly knocked down… Five bodies were found in the wreckage and removed to the mortuary that night.’
David Needham, Nottinghamshire Aircrashes, (Ashbourne, Landmark Publishing: 2008 p.155)

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