LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Hunter George Wilberforce SMITH
Service No: 402678
Born: Labasa, Fiji, 6 March 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 18 September 1940 (at Sydney NSW)
Unit: No. 288 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 288 Squadron Hurricane aircraft W9244), Lincolnshire, 10 December 1942, Aged 28 Years
Buried: Scopwick Church Burial Ground, Lincolnshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Sydney Wilberforce Smith and Ella Constance Smith, of Woollahra, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 10 December 1942 Hurricane W9244 crashed two miles south of Ashry, near Scunthorpe and Pilot Officer Smith was killed. The aircraft was engaged in an anti-aircraft battery cooperation exercise, and the aircraft caught fire when approximately 70 feet up before impact.
A Technical Report into the accident by Flight Lieutenant Deverill of RAF Station Kirton Lindsay reported that: “on investigation it was discovered that a hole four inches in diameter on the starboard side of the crankcase suggested that a Big End failure had occurred on No. 3 Big End. Connecting bolts on the forked rod were broken, and the connecting rod on No. 4 Big End was found to have made a hole approximately eight inches in diameter on the port side of the engine crankcase. Disintegration of the engine and the aircraft made further examination impossible, and the cause of the accident could not be ascertained, but it is suggested that the Big End failure occurred first and in some manner the aircraft caught fire in the air.”
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/162/553