Memorial ensures airmen will not be forgotten

More than 80 years since wartime crash, Lewis Clarke reports on the efforts to honour crew who perished

- 

It'S not the sort of place you'd expect to stumble upon a wartime tragedy. A mossy slope tucked into the woodland near Bridgetown on Exmoor, usually the domain of dog walkers and birdsong, hides a secret that lay quiet for more than 80 years.

But beneath the peaceful rustle of trees lies the legacy of an untimely death the wreckage of a Stirling bomber and the stories of the eight young men who never made it home.

Now, thanks to years of research, community effort and a dogged determination to remember, the story of EH933 is no longer a fading whisper among the hills.

A new memorial stands quietly near the crash site not shouting, not demanding attention, but offering solemn tribute to the lives cut short on that freezing January night in 1944.

It was just after midnight on January 27. Stirling bomber EH933, call sign 'A', was completing the fourth leg of a nighttime training mission. The aircraft had taken off from RAF Swinderby in Lincolnshire hours earlier, crewed by eight men from across Britain seven of them RAF Volunteer Reservists, one from the prewar Auxiliary Air Force.

The mission was intended to sharpen navigational skills, but conditions were dire. Clouds hung thick, winds gusted and visibility was poor. The pilot, Sgt Ronald Partridge, had only six hours of night flying experience in a Stirling. The aircraft veered off course somewhere near Winsford, heading unknowingly into danger a 1,000-foot hill cloaked in forest and darkness.

What happened next was sudden and brutal. At full power, the massive bomber crashed into the hillside. Wings and wreckage scattered across the slope. Six of the eight crew were found with the main fuselage. One, the rear gunner, was later discovered in a turnip field. None survived.

Locals heard the roar, felt the impact and rushed into the night.

The emergency services arrived from Dulverton, but it was too late. Nothing could be done.