Hampden crash site and memorial, Hameldown

On the night of 21 March 1941 a Handley Page Hampden of 49 Squadron, returning from a raid on the U-boat base at Lorient, flew into the north-east slope of Hameldown at about 1,570 ft. All four crew died: three at the scene, and the pilot in hospital the next day. A 6 ft granite boulder stands where the cockpit came to rest.

• Aircraft: Handley Page Hampden I X3054, code EA-S
• Unit: 49 Squadron RAF Bomber Command, from RAF Scampton
• Date: Night of 21 March 1941, about 22:50
• Crew: Four, all died
• Grid reference: SX 71300 80700 (from Dartefacts; some maps plot the memorial up to 800 m away)

What happened

It was one of six Hampdens sent to bomb Lorient, with mine-laying in the Brest and Bordeaux estuaries. On the way back the radio failed and the crew had no position fix. In poor weather the aircraft hit the hillside and burned. The pilot's mother, who had the memorial put up, believed he was trying to land. Her account was published in John Lowe's The Boys, and the Dartmoor National Park's Moor Than Meets The Eye project surveyed the site with geophysics in 2014.

What you can see

No wreckage is visible. One account says a local girl towed the wreck off the moor with a tractor (a single-source story). The memorial is a 6 ft granite boulder placed at the pilot's mother's request, near where the cockpit came to rest. On the north face are a cross and "R A F S. 49" with the crew's initials and 21.3.41, crudely cut. On the south face is a plaque put up in 1991 by the Torbay Aircrew Association, dated 22 March 1941. The inscription was re-cut during the 2014 project.

Access

The memorial is close to the road at Natsworthy Gate (from the east) and Firth Bridge (from the west), and is visited regularly. It is not in a range.

All military aircraft crash sites in the UK are protected by the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. It is an offence to dig, move or take anything from one without a licence from the Ministry of Defence, and many are war graves. Look, photograph, leave everything where it is.

Dates and names

The plaque says 22 March; the aircraft crashed on the night of the 21st. The crash height is 1,570 ft; the 1,737 ft sometimes quoted is the nearby trig point. This site is also written "Hamble Down" on some websites. It is a different crash from the B-24 Liberator on the same hill in December 1943.