Stanley Edward ROBINSON (1925-1945)

Stanley Edward Robinson

Personal Details

Other Details

The following information about Stanley has been obtained from Forces War Records

First Name: Stanley Edward
Initials: S E
Surname: Robinson
DOB: Circa 1926
Age: 19
Nationality: British
Date of Death: 30/03/1945
Information: SON OF JOSEPH AND JESSIE ROBINSON, OF WALWORTH, LONDON.
Rank: Sergeant
Service Number: 1894397
Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Regiment: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Battalion: 635 Squadron


The following is an extract from an article in "Sanctuary - The Ministry of Defence Conservation Magazine" No.36 in 2007.

"At 8:55 am on 30 March 1945, Lancaster PB911 of 635 (Pathfinder) Squadron took off from RAF Downham Market. The role of the Pathfinder Squadrons was to mark out targets for attack by the Bomber Squadrons through the use of flares. Despite their relatively young age, the pilot was 25 and the flight engineer 19, the seven man crew were experienced - this was their 22nd flight.

They were undertaking a training flight to practice usage of the ‘fishpond’ warning set. Fishpond was an add-on to the Lancaster’s H2S ground looking navigation radar system and provided additional coverage of the underside of the aircraft to display attacking fighters in the main H2S screen. According to the official reports, the aircraft was seen to come out of cloud in a steep dive from which it did not recover. Lancaster PB911 crashed at 11:10am in a field north west of Swayfield Church in Lincolnshire with the loss of all of her crew. Less than 6 weeks later Victory in Europe was declared.

The Lancaster PB 911 was manufactured by A V Roe at Woodford as part of contract number A/C 1807. It was in use with 635 Squadron from 28 February 1945 to the date of the crash. Between 5 and 30 March 1945 Lancaster PB911 made 12 operational flights. 11 of these involved raids on places such as Essen, Dortmund, Bremen and Dorsten. The twelveth was the fatal training flight in the UK.

Despite being on a training mission at the time of the crash the aircraft was fully armed. This was because in eastern England bombers could still encounter forays made by enemy fighters. The ammunition was a mixture of incendiary (manufactured in 1943 at Spennymoor in Durham) and armour-piercing (manufactured in 1944 at Radway Green in Cheshire). This combination was ideally suited to destroying enemy aircraft through hitting their fuel tanks.

Some sixty years after the crash of Lancaster PB911 excavation work was carried out on the crash site. Because much of the aircraft’s story was already known but little was known of the aircraft’s final moments the excavation work concentrated on trying to discover what caused the aircraft to crash.

An examination of the artefacts associated with the crash site was informative. The alignment of the engine remains seemed to indicate that the aircraft struck the ground at an angle of around 45 degrees and that its left wing, which was embedded deeper into the ground, struck first. The buckling of the engine valves indicated that the engines had been working at the point of impact and thus were probably not the cause of the crash. If the engines were functioning then, other than pure pilot error, the crash must have been caused by another major malfunction of the aircraft. The initial RAF report suggested that icing up of the controls was the most probable cause. This was a common concern amongst Second World War bomber crews, particularly at high levels when even the hydraulic oils of the gun turrets could freeze up.

Whilst a great deal of material was recovered from the site of the crash, not all of it was identifiable. The high impact crash and the resultant fire had reduced much of the aluminium to amorphous lumps, which had then been subject to the effects of sixty years worth of corrosion. Much of the airframe was simply removed, placed on a tarpaulin and returned to the impact crater on completion of the work. Many of the identifiable finds including large pieces of the Merlin engines, propeller blades, flash-eliminators from the machine guns and part of the air-gunners toolkit were retained by the Pathfinders Museum at RAF Wyton.

Although all members of the crew were provided with war graves and local accounts suggested that the bodies had been retrieved in 1945, there was still the possibility that some elements had not been recovered at the time. Arrangements were made so that immediate contact could be made with the Coroners Office in the event that any remains were encountered. In addition any items which could be considered to be identifiable personal effects were to be collected on site by the RAF and, if possible, returned to the families. In terms of personal property nothing was recovered other than a 1936 penny, which could have belonged to any member of the crew. Parts of flying kit such as parachute fragments and fittings, life jacket, and tunic pieces were uncovered along with elements of flying boots but again there was no evidence to connect these with a specific crew member."

A location pin on the MAP page identifies the location of the crash.

In rememberance of the young men who lost their lives on that day, the full crew list is as follows:-

Flight Officer D Dixon age 25
Sgt. S E Robinson age 19
F/Sgt S A Pimm age 20
F/Sgt R Goddard age 21
F/Sgt N Davis age 27
F/Sgt J G W Harcourt
F/Sgt R MacL Wilson age 20

A copy of the 635 squadron operations book (summary) for the 30th March 1945 is held on file and the entry simply reads
"No Operations. Weather. AOC visited squadon and addressed squadron aircrew. F/O D.Dixon crashed at Swayfield. Training carried out... (followed by a list of aircraft and pilots ending) F/O D.Dixon".
I guess with the numbers of men lost on operations, a training accident didn't warrant particular attention?.

Further information about No 635 Squadron.

Formed from 'B' Flight of No 35 Squadron and 'C' Flight of No 97 Squadron at Downham Market on 20 March 1944. Equipped with Lancasters, it formed part of No 8 (Pathfinder) Group, continuing in that role until the end of the war. Having carried out its last bombing mission on 25 April 1945, it undertook transport duties, repatriating POWs and carrying out food drops to civilians in Holland. It finally disbanded on 1 September 1945.

Motto: Nos ducimus ceteri secunter (We lead, others follow)
Squadron Codes used:
NB Allocated Apr 1939 - Sep 1939
F2 Mar 1944 - Sep 1945
No 635 Squadron Association: - Bill Stevenson: email bills.cathc@virgin.net

Update on Crash Location (08/09/22).

The extract from "Sanctuary" above refers to the crash site as being "in a field north-west of Swayfield Church". Current maps show such a field adjacent to the church and initially I assumed this was the field in question. However, I now know that the wartime RAF incident log refers to the crash as being "about 3/4 of a mile NW of the church".

Further investigation has now identified the crash site via Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer (https://hbsmrweb-lincolnshire.esdm.co.uk/Source/SLI16157) and the location shown on the "Maps Page" of this site has been updated accordingly.