Consolidated Catalina JX208, Castlegregory, Kerry, 1944
As the second world war ground its way toward its painful end, the Squadrons of the Royal Air Force's Coastal Command continued the missions they had carried out for five long years. The aircraft of Coastal Command had figured more often than not in the events that encompassed the tale of wartime Belligerent aircraft landings in and around Ireland. Of the final four fatal wartime crashes, the two most deadly were of Coastal Command aircraft. Sunderland ML743 crashed in February 1945, and it's story is told here on the site.
On the night of the 20th of December 1944, the penultimate Coastal Command loss in Ireland occurred, resulting in the death of 9 airmen of the RAF 202 Squadron occurred on the slopes of Benoskee Mountain above the seaside town of Castlegregory on the Dingle Peninsula. Witness on the night, including Jeremiah Dowling, Thomas Kelleher, Edward Rohan and his son his son Patrick, provided statements two days after the crash that they had heard an aircraft flying particularly low at about 2 am on the morning of the 20th of December. They were familiar with hearing aircraft flying around probably due to previous wartime time traffic and proximity to the Foynes flying boat base. They and others on this occasion were concerned that the aircraft was flying so low that it might indeed crash into the village of Stradbally. The aircraft passed over head however and moments later the engine noise ceased and an explosion produced a glaring fireball that lit up the surrounding area, in the words of Edward Rohan - ‘As soon as it crashed it went on fire immediately and you could pick a pin in my front yard with the light’. Each of the three older men lived no more than one and a half miles from the crash scene. Rohan and Kelleher lived in ‘Goulane’ per their witness statements, this is a townland on the northern side of Benoskee Mountain. The crash was recorded as being on the land of Timothy Lynch, Knockacorrin, Stradbally.
The peak of Benoskee Mountain is highlighted in the map above and the circle indicates the possible crash locations but this needs to be confirmed.
A party of Gardai under Sgt. D F O’Connell from the station in Castlegregory made their way to the scene arriving at about 5 am. Locals were at the scene and it was 8 am before a party of the Military from Tralee arrived to take over the area from the police, L.S.F. and L.D.F. Members of the local Red Cross were also present at the scene. The military party that attended the scene came from the 15th Infantry Battalion based in Tralee. Major M J Leamy from that unit submitted a report dated the 28th of December 1944 and it is worth quoting from that in summary:
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The remains of the men were taken from County Kerry on the 21st of December and driven by a men and trucks from the 1st Division to Baldonnel aerodrome outside Dublin. There they were transferred to fresh vehicles and with flags at the airfield at half mast, they departed for the border. 2nd/Lieut. T.J. Guy of the Irish Air Corps Transport Section, accompanied the remains to the border at Carrickarnon. There, a Guard of Honour under Capt. Fitzgerald from Dundalk Military Barracks awaited. The remains were transferred to an RAF officer that evening.
The photo above of Stradbally and Benoskee mountain was taken in 2008 from the tip of Brandon Point to the north west. The town of Stradbally is just out of view to the left of the photo but the crash site should probably be located on the center left of the image. The noticeable hollow in the top of the mountain contains a lake.
The namesand family details of the men from the crashed Catalina can be found in the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and it is from this source that relatives of the crew members were traced in 2012-2015.
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F/Lt Antony Basil LANGTON 114373 |
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F/Sgt Eric WILLIAMS 1586500 |
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F/Sgt Peter Lloyd LOWE 1322824 |
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P/O Robert Raymond PERKINS 196829 |
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Sgt George Alfred CUTHBERT 1666665 |
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Sgt James Malcolm WOTHERSPOON 1494496 |
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Sgt Reginald Frank DAMANT 1397870 |
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Sgt Henry George ALDRICH 1294808 |
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Sgt Albert Raymond LEWIS 2204497 |
Son
of Leonard William and Nelly Lowe, of Outwood, see below
for further details of Peter. 
Son of
Robert James Perkins and Minnie Perkins, of Basingstoke.
Robert was commissioned as an officer around the time of
the crash and the notice of promotion was published
posthumously in the London Gazette in 1945. His nephew
was able to confirm that he was among the airmen
photographed above and provided the photo shown at right
which is believed to have been taken in
Weston-super-mare, Robert is seen on the left of the
photo. Before the war he was a technician with Kelvin
Hughes Instruments in Basingstoke. His family understand
that he had completed tours of duty with RAF Bomber
Command. His service number at enlistment was 914922
indicating an early enlistment in perhaps 1939 or 1940.
son of James A. Wotherspoon and
Annie Wotherspoon, of Burnley. James was the youngest of
three brothers. James was listed in the 1939 register as
an Articled pupil to an architect. All three joined the
RAF during the war, Robert spending much of the war in
Canada in a training role while John Wotherspoon became
a POW when his Whitley bomber was shot down while taking
part in Operation Colossus, the first British parachute
raid of the war. James is buried with his parents in
Burnley. 
Son of Frank and Alice Mary Damant,
of Ipswich. Reginald was recognised in the group photos
by his sister after this site was tracked down by her
daughter. His sister, a wartime member of the Women's
Auxilliary Air Force (WAAF), had become engaged only two
days before her brothers crash. His sister recalls him
as having a love of aviation and that he may have served
with Bomber Command before his posting to Coastal
Command. 
The photo above was supplied by the family of Peter Lowe, the
navigator of the aircraft. The family of the man seated at the
front with pilots wings confirm that he is F/Lt John Howard
Dunn, the co pilot for A B Langton from April 1944 to September
of that year. The sister of Eric William's understandably could
not recognise her brother in the photo.
While the names of those in the photo are not known for certain,
Peter Lowe is the man standing at the far right of the photo.
The two men at the front of the photo have pilot wings badges,
while all other men appear to have the single wing badge of
navigators, radio operators etc.
The second photo, above, was provided by the nephew of J M
Wotherspoon. This wonderful photo clearly names all the men and
was also in the possession of the family of F/Lt Dunn albiet
without the names recorded. To aid in reading the names are
transcribed here:
Back Row, Left to Right: Aldrich, Perkins, Damant,
Cuthbert;
Front row Left to Right:Wotherspoon, Dunn, Langton, Lowe,
Lewis
Peter Lowe was a 21 year old Flight Sergeant. His trade recorded on his Commonwealth War Graves entry is that of Navigator/Bomber (Nav/Bom). He was the son of Leonard William and Nelly Lowe from Outwood in Surrey, just to the east of the modern M23 motorway south of London. The photos below come from Peter's belongings. They appear to show him in a slightly warmer climate than Northern Ireland. It is explained that his belongings indicate that he served in Rhodesia and probably trained at a training unit there.
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This particular photo above from Peter Lowe's belongings shows some airmen mucking around. The Middle Eastern influences and the pith helmets suggest that this may have been taken in Gibraltar. The background image would suggest again though that it was somewhere in Africa perhaps. The sign post on the left of the image points to Iraq on one of the arms
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The wartime Operations Record Books for 202 Squadron, retained in the United Kingdom national Archives in Kew London under reference AIR27/1185 can be used to trace the last few months service of F/Lt Langton and his crew. The first operational mission for F/Lt Langton and his crew was on 29th June, 1944 from Gibralter. The crew was that which died in December with two differences. F/Lt Dunn was of course the Co-pilot and there is a Sgt H Rudkin flying as a tenth crew member. Fl'lt Dunn's log book shows that he continued to fly with Langton up to the 28th of August after which he transferred back to Northern Ireland. From at least as far back as September 1944 the nine men who died on JX208 flew as crew together out of Gibraltar and later from Lough Erne. |
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The monthly summary in the ORB reads for September
1944: |
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For the month of October, there is no mention at all of
the Langton crew. They may have spent the month perhaps
on leave with their aircraft being modified in
Felixstowe. Or they may have been undergoing training
with the aircraft and new equipment. |
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The ORB for December contains just these three mentions of the Langton crew, one mission of just over 11 hours duration on the 12th of December and their final fatal mission, taking off late on December 19th and crashing shortly after in Kerry.  |
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The complete destruction of JX208 in its crash in neutral territory and the death of its entire crew left little that could be used to determine the cause of the crash. What investigations that could be carried out resulted in the limited entries to be found on the Air Ministry crash form held in the archives of the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, London. Despite the fire after the crash, the military and police at the scene were able to report that the tail of the plane was painted with the serial '1208' or 'JK208'.
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One side of the form provides the basic details of the
aircraft and flight crew. The aircraft was built in the
US by the Consolidated company at San Diego, California
and was in RAF terms a Catalina IVA. This was a non
amphibious version of the aircraft and would have
operated from water only. Flying hours for the two
pilots flying, F/Lt Langton and F/Sgt E Williams are
provided and indicate that both were experienced pilots,
Langton with 600 hours flying and Williams with perhaps
775 hours in total. Indications on the sheet are that
RAF courts of enquiry were carried out and Forms 765 and
412 were created. |
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The rear of the sheet contains the findings of the
investigations carried out.
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