Tempest PD-487

**Alain12** · 13th November 2010, 16:06

Hi ,
Would someone be so kind to see if the following is correct:
On october 7th 1944 a Tempest V PD-487 from N° 438 sqdn made a emergency landing at Lantremange ,a village near the town of Waremme in Belgium ,due to a fuel shortage. The pilot Sgt Randall Irwin was on a ferry flight from the UK to the airfield in Eindhoven Holland .

**jossleclercq** · 13th November 2010, 16:53

Hello,

No. 438 Squadron was still flying Typhoons at the time of this event. PD487 is a serial number which was not allocated, but it falls within a batch of 145 Typhoons IBs (PD446 to PD623, with a gap between PD481 to PD491 included, not taken up).

"The Typhoon and Tempest story" by Chris Thomas and Christopher Shores doesn't show a loss matching the details you give. It may have cause minor damages hence not recorded.

Joss

**Dakota** · 13th November 2010, 17:04

Salut Alain

No. 438 Squadron flew the Typhoon Mk. 1B.

Typhoon Mk. IB s/ MP135 and coded F3*G of No. 438 Squadron was shot down by flak while attacking a rail junction just south of Coesfeld on the 7th of October 1944.

Cheers...Chris

**Alain12** · 14th November 2010, 11:33

Thanks gentleman

Alain12

**Chris Thomas** · 14th November 2010, 17:13

The aircraft that force-landed at Lantremange on the above date was indeed a Typhoon but the serial number was PD497, not '487. The aircraft was being ferried from 83 Group Support Unit at Thorney Island (east of Portsmouth) to 438 Sqn at Eindhoven. The pilot was Flg Off F.R.F.Skelly (not Irwin), who was uninjured; the aircraft was deemed 'Category Ac' which meant it could be repaired locally but not by the parent unit.

Surviving records do not record which unit carried out the repair but it was more than likely one of the 2nd TAF's Repair and Salvage Units. The aircraft was back in service (with 440 Sqn) by December 1944; it was lost on operations on 3 February 1945, coded 'I8-K'.

As Joss says, the aircraft was not destroyed in the incident so does not appear in the loss lists in 'Typhoon and Tempest Story'. As it was a non-operational incident it is not recorded in '2nd TAF Vol 2' either.
CT

**Bill Walker** · 15th November 2010, 00:24

There is a photo of Frank Skelly on page 115 of Hugh Halliday's "Typhoon and Tempest: the Canadian Story". He was killed on 22 January 1945, when Typhoon MP128 blew up over a target near Montford.