Date:	Monday 7 April 1941
Time:	23:45
Type:	Boulton Paul Defiant Mk I
Owner/operator:	256 Sqn RAF
Registration:	N1694
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Lowlands Farm, off Plex Lane, Halsall, West Lancashire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Aerial patrol
Departure airport:	RAF Squires Gate, Blackpool, Lancashire
Destination airport:	RAF Squires Gate, Blackpool, Lancashire

Narrative:
Boulton Paul Defiant Mk I N1694, 256 Squadron, RAF Squires Gate, Blackpool, Lancashire. According to the file at the National Archives as Kew (File AIR81/5736 - see link #3): "Sergeant W Ross; injured; Flight Sergeant J Stenton: uninjured; failed to return from operational patrol, Defiant N1694, 256 Squadron, 7 April 1941

On the night of the 7th April 1941, No. 256 Squadron based at Squires Gate was flying night patrols against German raiders - one Defiant from the Squadron shot down a Ju.88 over Banks Marsh that night and many locals both sides of the Ribble estuary witnessed its fiery demise. Meanwhile a few miles away, another drama was taking place in the moonlight above the clouds over the Southport area. N1694 had taken off earlier piloted by Flight Sgt. J. Stenton, with his gunner Sgt W. Ross. However, during the patrol their aircraft suffered a major electrical equipment failure, resulting in complete loss of R/T and very soon they were completely lost and just after 23.30 hrs they were running low on fuel. Despite descending and breaking through the cloud cover at 4,000 feet, they were still unable to determine their position and elected to abandon the aircraft.

This decision could not have been taken lightly as the Defiant was never an easy aircraft to bail out of and it seems that all did not go well. Although Stenton made a safe descent, Sgt. Ross was reported as injured, with broken leg on landing. According to a family account, the pilot had broken legs, and was carried from the scene by Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) on a makeshift stretcher made from an outside toilet door borrowed from a nearby farm, and taken to Ormskirk Hospital.

In fact the situation proved more serious, as another Air Gunner, Sgt R.T. Adams from the Squadron notes in his personal diary "Ross is worse than we thought, broken leg and fractured skull. Not expected to live, relatives called for". However a couple of days later he notes that "Ross will pull through after all" and the following week he went to visit him at Ormskirk where he was "pulling through OK, but won't be flying for months".

Defiant N1694 impacted on farmland close to Lowlands Farm off Plex Lane, Halsall near Southport at 23.45, bursting into flames, though the fire seems to have been brief. By the next morning, when curious locals came to view the by now well guarded wreck, there was little recognisable as an aircraft left.

Crew:
Flight Sergeant J STENTON (pilot) RAF - survived OK
Sergeant William ROSS (Air Gunner) RAF - severely injured as per the above.

1. Photo of crash scene showing aircraft being recovered onto a trailer, relative lived near crash site, found the picture in a shoebox in the attic, and then research on internet.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft N1000-N9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1977 p 9)
3. North-West Aircraft Wrecks: New Insights into Dramatic Last Flights (Chapter 8) By Nick Wotherspoon
4. 256 Squadron ORB for November 1940 to December 1943: National Archives (PRO Kew) FIle AIR 27/1523: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2504165
5. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR81/5736: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C16689834
6. https://laituk.org/Defiant%20N1694.htm
7. 'Southport Visiter' 21 July 2016: https://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/news/nostalgia-warplanes-shrapnel-fell-around-11628241
8. http://www.aviationarchaeology.org.uk/recoveries
9. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/military/Crashes_in_Northern_England.pdf
10. https://your.westlancs.gov.uk/?uprn=100012416043
11. https://www.doogal.co.uk/ShowMap?postcode=L39%207JY

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
19-Oct-2020 18:24	Col b	Added
23-Feb-2022 10:14	Nepa	Updated [Date, Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Operator]