A Cranfield Tale ...

by Peter Hinson

A Story of People in a Wartime Situation - by Peter Hinson

In February 2001 Cranfield Express an email from fifteen year old Tom Milner, looking for information about his great uncle William Henry Sellars, was published. It transpired that W.H.Sellars was killed in a flying accident at Cranfield in 1943. After much local investigation I have put together a brief resume which offers some idea of the last moments of this young pilot's life. In telling this story I have steered away from the tendency to itemise and quote boring facts in what is a very human story of people in a wartime situation...

On the evening of Saturday 11th of September 1943, 26 year old Sergeant Pilot William Henry Sellars climbed into the cockpit of his Mk 1F Bristol Beaufighter, on dispersal, at RAF Cranfield. The flight was routine training and, although it was to be his first night flying solo, Sgt/P Sellars was no rookie ...

At the outbreak of war William Sellars, a solicitors clerk and member of the TA from Sleaford Lincs, headed off to France with his regiment. Returning to the UK after the evacuation at Dunkirk he decided to try the Royal Air Force and his acceptance into the service then took him to Canada and the USA for training. He was then posted to 51 Operational Training Unit at RAF Cranfield...

By 2110hrs on that day Sgt/P Sellars had taxied the Mk1F Beaufighter X7557 to the holding point near the threshold of runway 22. Turning into wind he would have run the engines up to full power and carried out a series of pre take -off checks before positioning his aircraft for what was to be his last flight.

In the kitchen at College Farm, Bourne End, at around 9.10pm, 33 year old Rachel Richardson was getting the tea ready for her husband.

Rachel and Cecil had become tenants of College Farm in 1936 and they farmed the 60 acre site that was owned by the St John's College Cambridge. At the outbreak of war the farm, as did all such farms, went on to full production for the Ministry of Supply and on the 11th of September '43 the barns were fully stocked from the harvest. As the day had progressed Rachel had tended the chickens and other animals around the farmhouse whilst Cecil had been threshing ricks. At around 9.20pm they both sat down to enjoy a late tea...

Just after 2115 hrs Sgt/P Sellars throttled up the two 1,425 horse power Hercules 111 engines to full power and released the brakes. True to specifications X7557 accelerated rapidly along runway 22 and, at the point of rotation, lifted gracefully into the air with the undercarriage folding into the storage bays ...

Sgt/P Sellars' aircraft was one of the first batch of 500 production machines to come out of the Old Mixon Shadow factory of the Bristol Aeroplane Company at Weston Super Mare. The fact that it was aircraft number 18 off the line indicates it may have been dispatched to any of the RAF Fighter Interception Units and even North Africa before ending up at RAF Cranfield as a trainer.

As a fighter the Mk 1F Beaufighter did not have the manoeuvrability and speed of the then popular single engined Spitfire or Hurricane but did have the range, versatility and firepower to operate as a formidable night fighter.

After initial development some later mks went on to fly with Coastal Command as torpedo bombers and their success in the far-eastern theatre of war was confirmed when the Japanese named them 'Whispering Death'.

Levelling out after the climb, Sgt/P Sellars would have trimmed the aircraft to level flight and turned left into the circuit. Presuming the circuit followed the same pattern as modern day Cranfield air traffic and procedures, he would have remained at approx. 1000 feet before turning left on to downwind, around the eastern edge of the village and left again onto base leg. On the next turn X7557 would be on a landing approach and, just before 2125hrs, within close proximity of College Farm. He would have selected a landing setting on the flaps, at about five hundred feet altitude, and the wheels would probably be descending ...

Rachel and Cecil had grown used to hearing aircraft turning finals to land. College Farm was situated just to the side of the 22 approach centre-line and since the aerodrome, as the locals called it, had become so busy they seldom even glanced up as the aircraft passed over.

The thunderous roar of impact took them by surprise as Sgt/P Sellars Beaufighter slid through the rickyard, the barn, out buildings and into the pigsty just behind the house. Outside, the yard and most of the buildings were burning. Within minutes the aerodrome fire crew turned up, possibly alerted by flight control, and began dowsing the fires. Eventually, the body of Sgt/P Sellars was lifted from the wreckage and lay covered on the lawn in front of Rachel's kitchen window - a stark reminder of the fragility of life.

For William Henry Sellars the war was over, along with his all too short life. In the days that followed the crash, his body was sent home and he was buried in the churchyard of St Boltophs at Quarrington, Lincs.

For Rachel and Cecil life had to go on. The MOD replaced the barn and buildings but could not replace the feedstuff, hay and straw lost in the blaze. Certainly all of that winter 43/44 Cecil had to travel far and wide with tractor and trailer to maintain bedding and fodder at College Farm.

Whatever material that was recoverable of Beaufighter X7557 would have gone for salvage and possibly ended up once more defending the skies of the nation or melted into some other part of wartime requirements.

Flying accidents were not investigated as thoroughly as they are nowadays. The official RAF report ruled out engine failure and offered a badly misted perspex canopy, restricting the pilot's view, as being the possible cause. Many other problems could have been identified as being constructive to the destruction of X7557. Only Sgt/P Sellars could have, in those last few moments of his life, recognised the problem as being potentially lethal.