25Aug1942 Prince George dies in Sunderland W4026 crash

[TonyGosling]

[TonyGosling]

The Dunbeath air crash - more commonly referred to as The Eagle's Rock Crash - involved the loss of a Mark 3 Short S.25 Sunderland W4016 of 228 Squadron (Coastal Command) that crashed in the Scottish Highlands on a headland known as Eagle's Rock (Creag na h-Iolaire) near Dunbeath, Caithness on 25 August 1942.
http://aircrewremembered.com/crash-at-eagles-rock-sunderland-w4026.htm l

The crash killed 14 of 15 passengers and crew, including Prince George, Duke of Kent, who was on duty as an Air Commodore in the Royal Air Force on a mission to Reykjavik; a message of condolence was proposed in Parliament by the British Prime Minister. A Royal Air Force Board of Inquiry determined that the crash was the result of a navigational error by the crew. But to many this looked like a whitewash.

The Sunderland had not long taken off from its base at 228 Squadron (Coastal Command) in the Cromarty Firth. The crash had ignited the aircraft's newly topped-up fuel tanks and the subsequent fireball had virtually destroyed everything. Such incidents were apparently not rare. The North Highlands, with its mountainous terrain and challenging weather systems, had claimed numerous other victims during the war years. What singled out this accident, above all others, was the the death of HRH the Duke of Kent.

The aircraft and crew were assigned a VIP transport mission to RAF Reykjavik, specifically to transport Prince George, Duke of Kent to Iceland. The aircraft departed from a seaplane base at RAF Invergordon on the Cromarty Firth at 1305 GMT on Sunday 25 August 1942 into foggy weather. The Sunderland (flying on instruments) veered off its flight plan track and crashed into the remote Eagle's Rock at 13:42 GMT. The official board of inquiry concluded that the plane crashed into the hillside due to an error of navigation; i.e. there was not enough allowance made for wind that caused the aircraft to drift off its planned track up the eastern coast of Scotland. Fourteen of the fifteen crew and passengers, including HRH The Duke of Kent, perished in the crash.

On the day of the crash, the aircraft had taken off from the Cromarty Firth at Invergordon, and then flown up the coast. The flight plan was for the aircraft to fly parallel with the east coast of Sutherland and Caithness until it reached Duncansby Head, where it would turn north west and head directly for Iceland.

Take-off: RAF Invergordon - Planned turn point: Duncansby Head - Crash Site: Eagle's Rock

It remains a mystery why the aircraft turned inland when it did, and it is a still greater mystery why it had descended to 700ft by the time it struck the ground. The crew on board was hand-picked and highly unlikely to make a navigational error of the scale necessary to suggest they simply turned north west too early. And while there was patchy cloud around, visibility ought to have been sufficient for the crew to see they were flying into hills.

Once described by Prime Minister Winston Churchill as a ‘gallant and handsome prince’, George Edward Alexander Edmund, the popular Duke of Kent, was the youngest brother of the reigning monarch, King George VI. Fifth in line to the throne, the duke had much to live for; he and his wife, Princess Marina, had just celebrated the birth of their son, Michael, only seven weeks previously. In his position as an air commodore he had responsibility of the welfare of RAF personnel and, as the inscription on the memorial at Eagle's Rock records, he was killed on a ‘special mission’.

Sir Archibald Sinclair, then Secretary for Air, reported to the House of Commons the official investigations had revealed: ‘First, that the accident had occurred because the aircraft was flown on a track other than that indicated on the flight plan given to the pilot and at too low an altitude to clear the rising ground on the track; secondly, that the responsibility for this serious mistake in airmanship lies with the captain of the aircraft; thirdly, that the weather encountered should have presented no difficulties to an experienced pilot; fourthly, that the examination of the propellers showed that the engines were under power when the aircraft struck the ground; and fifthly, that all the occupants of the aircraft were on duty at the time of the accident.’

However, a number of issues remained unresolved. The flight crew were all hand-picked and vastly experienced aviators. The question was asked why, at such an early stage in the flight and in such poor visibility, did they veer away from the planned flight path and drop altitude over known hilly terrain? A lack of official documentation, much of which went missing, together with denied access to the, albeit limited, royal archives, has over the ensuing years, fuelled speculation and conspiracy theorists. One theory is that enemy infiltrators tampered with the flight before it took off from Invergorden. It is alleged that a secret report received by German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, on 5 December 1942, claimed the Duke of Kent was apparently sympathetic to a peaceful understanding with Germany and an internal sabotage plot had been carried out as a last resort to avoid a potentially embarrassing ‘problem’ for Britain.

Incredibly, one of the members of the flight crew survived the crash: Flight Sergeant Andrew Jack was the tail gunner, his turret broke off on impact. Miraculously he had survived the fireball which engulfed Eagle's Rock. Confused, disorientated and suffering from burns to his face and body he had wandered aimlessly in the misty conditions before his discovery by the Sutherland family at their remote croft at Rinsary, the following day. Flight Sergeant Jack claimed to have crossed many bridges whilst lost, there are four footbridges in the area so the family concluded he must have been going around in circles.

It is known while in hospital in Wick, Jack was visited privately by two senior RAF officers. Some believe he was forced to sign the Official Secret Act because, until his death in 1978, he refused to answer questions in connection with the accident. He did allude to his personal belief that the crash was not due to pilot error and no ‘serious mistake in airmanship’ could be attributed to the aircraft's official captain. However, he would not elaborate further.

The official investigation had blamed Flight Lieutenant Frank Goyen, the Sunderland's pilot and captain. However, Goyen was not the senior officer on board. In the last minutes before take off the crew had been joined by Wing Commander Thomas Mosley 228 Squadron's Commanding Officer. And the Duke, of course, held the rank of Air Commodore.

A more plausible explanation is the allegation that friends of the duke were known to be staying at Langwell House very close to the crash site and the last known message heard from the flight deck was ‘Let's go down and have a look...’ The question raised is just exactly whose hands were on the controls at the moment of impact? Listening on the intercom in the rear of the aircraft Jack would have known exactly what was taking place but his version of accounts was never disclosed.

Members of the Royal Family still visit Eagle's Rock from time to time. It has become a focal point for their grief. King George VI had made his own special pilgrimage not long after the crash. The Celtic cross, bearing the names of those who died, records how they had died while on a ‘special mission’, a mission that ended in disaster.

Those on Board at the time of the crash were:
Air Commodore HRH The Duke of Kent.
Lieutenant John Crowther, RNVR Private Secretary.
Pilot Officer The Hon. Michael Strutt.
Leading Aircraftman John Walter Holes, Batman.
Flight Lieutenant Frank McKenzie Goyen, Captain.
Wing Commander Thomas Mosley, Commanding Officer of 228 Squadron, 1st pilot.
Pilot Officer Sidney Wood Smith, 2nd pilot.
Pilot Officer George Saunders, Navigator.
Flight Sergeant William Jones, Flight Mechanic Engineer / Air Gunner.
Flight Sergeant Charles Lewis, Airframe Fitter.
Flight Sergeant Ernest Hewardine, Wireless Operator / Air Gunner.
Sergeant Edward Blacklock, Wireless Operator / Air Gunner.
Sergeant Arthur Roland Catt, Wireless Operator / Air Gunner.
Sergeant Leonard Sweett, Fitter.
Sergeant Andrew Jack, Wireless Operator / Air Gunner.

The crash remains an unsolved mystery and the views of those who, having studied the facts as they are known to them, still insist that whatever caused the ill-fated flight to crash, it was not pilot error. It seems that the crash (not rare by the standards of the time) was just a terrible accident - the fact that will never be known is who was really at the controls at the time of the crash.

Duke of Kent Marker

In 1946 the Ministry of Works asked a local contractor to erect two memorials at the site. The first, in the form of a Celtic cross rising from a plinth, commemorates all those who died that day. The second, to the north and out of sight of the first, marks the place where the body of the Duke of Kent was found.

[TonyGosling]

[TonyGosling]

One of the dead may even have been the Duke's boyfriend.

Her uncle dragged the royal and his fellow crewmen from the blazing wreckage, suffering terrible burns as he fought to save them.

He later told his family the Duke was at the controls - not the man who eventually was blamed.

For the first time in more than 60 years the relatives of Flt Sgt Andrew Jack have broken their silence.

His niece Margaret Harris, 69, of Prestatyn, has told how her uncle was ordered by the RAF not to reveal any details concerning the accident in order to protect the reputation of the Duke.

The Duke was the youngest brother of George VI and said to be a drug user, alcoholic and bisexual. Sgt Jack believed an unnamed passenger aboard the fateful flight was really the Duke's boyfriend.

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/scandal-of-a-royal-d eath-2935893

[TonyGosling]

Prince George, Duke of Kent
https://spartacus-educational.com/2WWkentD.htm

George Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was born on 20th December 1902 at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate. His father, George, Prince of Wales, was the son of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. At the time of his birth, George was fifth in the line of succession.

Edward VII died in 1910 and Prince George's father, George V became the new king. The outbreak of the First World War created problems for the royal family because of its German background. Owing to strong anti-German feeling in Britain, it was decided to change the name of the royal family from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. To stress his support for the British, the king made several visits to the Western Front. On one visit to France in 1915 he fell off his horse and broke his pelvis.

At the age of thirteen Prince George went to Osborne Naval College. Later he transferred to Dartmouth College and served in the Royal Navy on board the Iron Duke and the Nelson.

In 1917 George V took the controversial decision to deny political asylum to the Tsar Nicholas II and his family after the Bolshevik Revolution. People where shocked by George's unwillingness to protect his cousin but his advisers argued that it was important for the king to distance himself from the autocratic Russian royal family. Some people questioned this decision when it became known that the Bolsheviks had executed Tsar Nicholas, his wife and their five children.

In 1924 George V appointed Ramsay MacDonald, Britain's first Labour Prime Minister. Two years later he played an important role in persuading the Conservative Government not to take an unduly aggressive attitude towards the unions during the General Strike.

Prince George remained in the Royal Navy until 1929. He then held posts in the Foreign Office and the Home Office. In 1934 George married Princess of Marina of Yugoslavia. At the same time he was granted the title of the Duke of Kent. Like his brother Edward, the Duke of Kent was sympathetic to the political developments that were taking place in Nazi Germany.

George V died of influenza on 20th January, 1936. George's brother, Edward VIII now became king. At the time he was having a relationship with Wallis Simpson. The government instructed the British press not to refer to the relationship. The prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, urged the king to consider the constitutional problems of marrying a divorced woman.

Although the king received the political support from Winston Churchill and Lord Beaverbrook, he was aware that his decision to marry Wallis Simpson would be unpopular with the British public. The Archbishop of Canterbury also made it clear he was strongly opposed to the king's relationship.

The government was also aware that Simpson was in fact involved in other sexual relationships. This included a married car mechanic and salesman called Guy Trundle and Edward Fitzgerald, Duke of Leinster. More importantly, the Federal Bureau of Investigation believed that Simpson was having a relationship with Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Ambassador to Britain, and that she was passing secret information obtained from the king to the Nazi government.

On 10th December, 1936, the king signed a document that stated he he had renounced "the throne for myself and my descendants." The following day he made a radio broadcast where he told the nation that he had abdicated because he found he could not "discharge the duties of king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love."

George VI now became king and the coronation took place on 12th May, 1937. Later that month, Neville Chamberlain replaced Stanley Baldwin as prime-minister. The following year Chamberlain travelled to Nazi Germany to meet Adolf Hitler in an attempt to avoid war between the two countries.

The result of Chamberlain's appeasement policy was the signing of the Munich Agreement. George VI wrote to Chamberlain on hearing the news: "I am sending this letter by my Lord Chamberlain, to ask you if you will come straight to Buckingham Palace, so that I can express to you personally my most heartfelt congratulations on the success of your visit to Munich. In the meantime this letter brings the warmest of welcomes to one who by his patience and determination has earned the lasting gratitude of his fellow countrymen throughout the Empire."

Prince George shared his brother's view of appeasement and was considered the leader of the Anglo-German peace group. According to the authors of Double Standards (2001) the Duke of Kent met Rudolf Hess and Alfred Rosenberg during the 1930s. A report written by Rosenberg for Adolf Hitler in October 1935 stated that the Duke of Kent was working behind the scenes "in strengthening the pressure for a reconstruction of the Cabinet and mainly towards beginning the movement in the direction of Germany."

In February 1937 it was reported that the Duke of Kent had met the Duke of Windsor in Austria. Later that year a Foreign Office document pointed out that the Duke of Kent had developed a close relationship with Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Ambassador in London.

By 1938 British intelligence was becoming very concerned about the activities of the Nazi spy, Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe. A report said: "She is frequently summoned by the Führer who appreciates her intelligence and good advice. She is perhaps the only woman who can exercise any influence on him." They also reported that she seemed to be "actively recruiting these British aristocrats in order to promote Nazi sympathies." (PROKV2/1696). According to MI5 the list of people she had been associating with over the last few years included Prince George, the Duke of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, Ethel Snowden, Philip Henry Kerr (Lord Lothian), Geoffrey Dawson, Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry, Ronald Nall-Cain, 2nd Baron Brocket, Lady Maud Cunard and Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild. In August 1938 French intelligence, the Deuxième Bureau, told MI6 that it was almost certain that Princess Stephanie was an important German agent.

The Duke of Kent took part in secret talks with his cousin Prince Philip of Hesse in early 1939 in order to avoid a war with Nazi Germany. In July 1939, the Duke of Kent he approached George VI with a plan to negotiate directly with Adolf Hitler. The king, who supported the idea, spoke to Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax about the plan.

On the outbreak of the Second World War the Duke of Kent and his family moved to Scotland, living in Pitliver House, near Rosyth, in Fife. He returned to active military service at the rank of Rear Admiral, briefly serving on the Intelligence Division of the Admiralty. In April 1940, he transferred to the Royal Air Force. He took the post of Staff Officer in the RAF Training Command at the rank of Air Commodore.

In 1940 the Duke of Kent travelled to Lisbon to meet the dictator of Portugal, Antonio Salazar. The Duke of Windsor, who was in Madrid at the time, planned to meet his brother while he was in Lisbon. British officials were instructed to prevent the former king from going to Portugal until the Duke of Kent had left the country.

On 10th May, 1941, Rudolf Hess flew a Me 110 to Scotland with the intention of having a meeting with the Duke of Hamilton. Hess hoped that Hamilton would arrange for him to meet George VI. According to the authors of Double Standards (2001) the Duke of Kent was with Hamilton at his home (Dungavel House) on the night that Hess arrived in Scotland. As the Duke of Kent's papers are embargoed it is impossible to confirm this story. However, we do know from other sources he was at RAF Sumburgh in the Shetlands on the 9th and at Balmoral in Scotland on the 11th of May. The following day he was at RAF Wick at Caithness. He was therefore definitely in that area during this period.

The Duke of Hamilton's diary records several meetings with the Duke of Kent during the early months of 1941. Elizabeth Byrd worked as a secretary for Hamilton's brother Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton. She claims he told her that the Duke of Hamilton took the "flak for the whole Hess affair in order to protect others even higher up the social scale". Byrd added that "he (Lord Malcolm) had strongly hinted that the cover-up was necessary to protect the reputations of members of the Royal Family".

On 25th August 1942, Prince George, Duke of Kent, took off from Invergordon in an S-25 Sunderland Mk III Flying Boat. The official story is the Duke was on a morale-boosting visit to RAF personnel stationed in Iceland. The crew had been carefully selected for the task. The captain, Flight Lieutenant Frank Goyen, was considered to be Sunderland flyer in the RAF and had flown some of Britain’s politicians during the war. The rest of the crew was also highly regarded. The co-pilot was Wing Commander Thomas Lawton Mosley, the commanding officer of 228 Squadron. Mosley was one of the RAF’s most experienced pilots having completed 1,449 flying hours. He was also a navigation specialist and was a former instructor at the School of Navigation.

Officially the Duke of Kent was one of fifteen people on board the aircraft. Also on board were Prince George’s private secretary (John Lowther), his equerry (Michael Strutt) and his valet (John Hales).

The flying boat took off from Invergordon on the east coast of Scotland at 1.10 p.m. Being a flying boat, its standing orders were to fly over water, only crossing land when absolutely unavoidable. The route was to follow the coastline to Duncansby Head – the northernmost tip of Scotland – and then turn northwest over the Pentland Firth towards Iceland.

The S-25 Sunderland Mk III crashed into Eagle’s Rock later that afternoon (there is much dispute about the exact time this happened) at a height of around 650 feet. As you can see from the map below, the flying boat was well off course when the accident happened. Its 2,500 gallons of fuel, carried in the wings, exploded.

The route of the S-25 Sunderland Mk III on 25th August, 1942.
The route of the S-25 Sunderland Mk III on 25th August, 1942.
This raises some important questions. Why did the pilot take the flying boat off course? It was a clear day and he would be fully aware that he was now flying over land rather than the sea. Why, when the aircraft included four experienced navigators, did the aircraft drift a huge 15 degrees off course from its point of departure? Why did he descend to 650 feet when he was flying over high land? This is especially puzzling when one considers that the S-25 Sunderland Mk III had one major defect – it was sluggish when climbing – especially when heavily laden, as it was on the Duke of Kent’s flight.

The crash was heard by local people and reached the scene of the accident about 90 minutes after they heard the explosion. This included a doctor (John Kennedy) and two policemen (Will Bethune and James Sutherland). They found 15 bodies. This included the body of the Duke of Kent. Bethune gave a radio interview in 1985 where he described finding Prince George’s body. He said that handcuffed to the Duke’s wrist was an attaché case that had burst open, scattering a large number of hundred-kroner notes over the hillside.

The Duchess of Kent, collapsed in shock when she heard the news. The following morning the newspapers reported that everyone on board the Sunderland had been killed. Telegrams were sent to the next of kin of all members of the crew. However, later that day it emerged that Andy Jack, the tail-gunner, had been found in a crofter’s cottage at Ramscraigs. Apparently, when the flying boat exploded, the tail section was thrown over the brow of the hill, coming to rest in the peat bog on the other side. Andy Jack only had superficial injuries. What he did next was very surprising. Instead of going to the wreckage to see what had happened to his colleagues, and waiting for rescuers to arrive, he ran away in the opposite direction. This of course was in direct contravention of standard procedure – which was always to remain with the wreck. Andy Jack eventually found an isolated crofter’s cottage. The owner, Elsie Sutherland alerted Dr. John Kennedy by telephone. However, it was sometime before this information reached the authorities. Andy Jack’s sister Jean had already received a telegram telling her that her brother had been killed in the accident.

Winston Churchill made a statement in the House of Commons where he described the Duke of Kent as “a gallant and handsome prince”. Of the many tributes and messages of condolence received from other countries, the most significant was from General Wladyslaw Sikorski, the head of the Polish government in exile. The two men were very close and Sikorski sent a special dispatch to all Polish troops in Britain where he described the Duke as “a proven friend of Poland and the Polish armed forces”.

The Duchess of Kent visited Andy Jack several times after the death of her husband. It is believed that the information he provided influenced what was inscribed on the Duke of George’s memorial. This included the following: “In memory of…. the Duke of Kent… and his companions who lost their lives on active service during a flight to Iceland on a special mission on 25th August 1942”. The use of the words “special mission” is an interesting one. It was also the words used by Pilot Officer George Saunders, who also died in the crash. In 2001 Peter Brown, the nephew of Saunders, told a researcher that he was told that in August 1942, Saunders went home to see his family in Sheffield. Saunders informed his mother: “I’m just on leave for a couple of days. I’m going on a most important mission, very secret. I can’t say any more.”

A court of inquiry was held and details of their findings were presented in the House of Commons by the Secretary of State for Air, Archibald Sinclair, on 7th October 1942. The conclusion of the report was: “Accident due to aircraft being on wrong track at too low altitude to clear rising ground on track. Captain of aircraft changed flight-plan for reasons unknown and descended through cloud without making sure he was over water and crashed.”

Sinclair confirmed that weather conditions were fine and there was no evidence of mechanical failure. He added “the responsibility for this serious mistake in airmanship lies with the captain of the aircraft”. It was therefore suggested that the reason for the crash was the team of four pilot/navigators drifted off course and then failed to reach the necessary height to clear Eagle Rock.

The problem is that the documents that would enable researchers to re-examine the evidence have vanished. This includes the flight plan filed by Goyen before take-off.

The secret court of inquiry should have been made available after 15 years. When researchers asked the Public Record Office in 1990 for a copy of the report it was discovered that it had gone missing. The PRO suggested it might have been transferred to the royal archives at Windsor Castle. However, the registrar of the royal archives denies they have ever had the report.

Andy Jack, the only survivor of the crash, was forced to sign the Official Secrets Act while still in hospital. He later told his sister that he could not talk about the crash because he had been “sworn to secrecy”. Jean Jack did provide researchers with one piece of interesting information about the case. Frank Goyen gave Andy Jack a signed photograph of himself just before take-off on which he had written: “With memories of happier days.” Was this a reference to the mission they were about to undertake? Does it suggest that Goyen disapproved of the mission?

Andy Jack was promoted and after the war served in Gibraltar. While he was there he was visited several times by the Duchess of Kent. Clearly, she was still interested in finding out why her husband was killed.

On 17th May 1961 the Duchess of Kent brought the case to national attention when she visited the scene of her husband’s death. This created a discussion about the crash in the media. Andy Jack now came forward to give an interview to the Scottish Daily Express. He was still serving with the RAF and not surprisingly he went along with the conclusions of the official inquiry. He retired from the RAF on a good pension in 1964. However, he drunk away his money and died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of fifty-seven.

An important witness to the crash was Captain E. E. Fresson. He piloted an aircraft over the same area and at around the same time as the crashed Flying Boat. The following day he took the only aerial photographs of the wreckage. In 1963 Fresson published his autobiography, Air Road to the Isles. Amazingly, the book does not refer to the death of the Duke of Kent. According to his son, Richard Fresson, the book originally included a full chapter that covered his investigation into the crash. However, this material was removed by the publishers at the last moment.

There is also another interesting aspect to this story. Just ten days after the death of the Duke of Kent, another flying boat, also from 228 Squadron, crashed in the Scottish Highlands. The official explanation was that the plane had run out of fuel. Everyone on board was killed, including a very interesting passenger, Fred Nancarrow, a journalist from Glasgow. Nancarrow was investigating the Eagle Rock crash.