Sutherland WWII air crash marked 75 years to the day
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A MEMORIAL has been erected in memory of the crew of a Short Sunderland flying boat which crashed on exercise in Glen Loth at the end of World War II.
Fifteen young men serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force lost their lives in the tragic accident at the top of Creag Riabhach on August 15, 1944.
The move to mark the 75th anniversary of the accident this year came from Brora residents John MacLeod and Jim Gunn.
They were keen to erect a permanent memorial at the crash site - where the impact of the collision and ensuing fire is still visible.
Permission was sought from landowner John Billett. Local fabricator John Duncan made the galvanised stand for the stainless steel plaque.
And on August 15 an 11-strong group made their way up to the summit of the 941ft Creag Riabhach for the installation.
Present were Mr MacLeod, Mr Gunn and Mr Billett as well as Brora residents Sid Bright, Dom Turner, Simon Turner, Angus Millar, Jim Cunningham, Sandy Dunbar, Nick Lindsay and Blair Colvin, Kintradwell.
Clyne Heritage Society chairman Nick Lindsay said: “The stand was securely bolted to a granite outcrop with the plaque fixed to its top and covered with a Union Jack flag.
“A Royal Air Force Ensign flag was attached to a temporary flagpole erected nearby and flapped about vigorously in the wind.”
John MacLeod welcomed all to the commemoration and spoke about the tragic event that had happened on the spot.
Ex-serviceman Sid Bright unveiled the plaque and Angus Miller read out the text, which ended with a poignant inscription in Gaelic – ‘Se tuiteam an uisge an gleann a’caoineadh dhuibh’ (The falling of the rain is the glen crying for you).
Former serviceman Dom Turner laid a poppy wreath and read the names of those lost.
The group then stood in quite contemplation for a few minutes.
It was at 11.16pm on August 14, 1944, that the seaplane, part of the No 4 Operational Training Unit at Alness, took off on a radar homing exercise.
Less than a hour later, the duty commander at Alness decided the crew should return to base as the weather deteriorated.
A Court of Inquiry, which later investigated the crash, heard that the aircraft made landfall at Lybster and hugged the coast as it made its way back towards its base.
But for some inexplicable reason, it turned 90 degrees at Glen Loth and headed north-westwards
Within minutes of this disastrous turn, the Sunderland ploughed into the summit of Creag Riabhach at around 12.30am on August 15, and caught fire.
There were no survivors.
In the weeks after the crash, the majority of the wreckage was taken away by the military who were well used to removing plane crash wrecks from Scottish hillsides.
There had already been 11 such instances during the war in Sutherland alone by then and there would be another two before the end of the war in September 1945.
Mr Lindsay said: “There are still plenty of small bits of fuselage, rubber, cable, Bakelite, plastic glass, twisted bits of metal and contorted melted aluminium to be found.”
All except one of the Sunderland crew were interred in Rosskeen Cemetery, near Invergordon.
The remaining crew member was laid to rest at the Jewish Cemetery at Glenduffhill, Glasgow.
