An Air Force Baffin bomber, the type of plane that crashed into the sea at Christchurch in February 1940, killing all three aircrew. Photo / NZ Herald
An Air Force Baffin bomber, the type of plane that crashed into the sea at Christchurch in February 1940, killing all three aircrew. Photo / NZ Herald
It was the early months of World War II when horrified onlookers at a Christchurch beach saw a Baffin bomber plane circle twice before dipping into a steep dive and crashing into the sea.
One described seeing a puff of smoke and hearing an explosion before the machine hit thesea.
It was February 1940 and the Baffin had crashed about 400m off the beach north of Waimairi.
All three airmen on the Royal New Zealand Air Force training flight 1940 were killed.
The victims were Flight Lieutenant Arthur Poulton, Air Gunner William James Reynold Strachan, and Aircraftsman (first class) Douglas Haig Birbeck.
"Airmen, groundsmen and relief workers along the shore were horrified to see the Baffin, when turning at a height of less than 800ft [244m], turn its nose down and dive at a terrific speed into the water, obviously out of control," wrote the Herald at the time.
"Realising that disaster was unavoidable, airmen on the ground dashed along the beach, stripped, and were alongside the sinking aeroplane before it had settled in deep water, but their efforts to find the crew were fruitless, particularly in the choppy surf."
Battling a heavy swell and oil on the surface, surf lifesavers dived at the wreck site. Three boats came to help too.
Strachan's body was recovered in the early evening and Poulton's later.
Birbeck's body was found two days later on South Brighton beach, about 11km south of the crash site.
A farm rope was attached to the plane and two horses were brought to the beach but not used for fear of snapping the rope. The machine was later hauled ashore using ropes and with "nearly 200 men assisting", the Herald said.
A police officer with wreckage washed ashore from a fatal bomber crash into the sea at Christchurch in 1940. Inset is one of the three victims, Arthur Poulton. Photo / NZ Herald
When the war with Germany started in September 1939, New Zealand had begun a rapid expansion of its Air Force.
By late 1943, its personnel had grown more than 100-fold since the start of the war, according to the then Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice-Marshal L.M. Isitt.
"Since the war broke out, we have sent overseas sufficient aircrew personnel to fly approximately 2000 bombers and 1500 fighters," Isitt said.
But this also came with a rapid increase in the number of deaths of aircrew in New Zealand - from 15 in the first nine months of 1942, to 46 in the same period the following year.
