Royl Field Mosquito Memorial

Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia

In the late hours of November the 22nd 1944, the Mosquito DZ 642 of the H/627 Sqn., on its return from a failed mission on the German U - boat pens in Trondheim, Norway, crashed into the steep Royl Field hill in South Shetland Mainland.
The Mosquito was "Marker 3" of three mosquitos that had taken off from Woodhall Spa. Their mission was to mark the target in Trondheim for the Lancasters of 5th group.
They had landed in Lossiemouth for refuelling, but in one way or another, the "Marker 3" had not been refuelled.
When they arrived at target, the Germans had been warned and the area was covered by a smoke screen. There was nothing to do but return.
"Marker 3" had very little fuel left, and decided to try to land at Scatsta Airport in Shetland, but they had problems with their radio, and could not communicate with the airport, so the two other mosquitos accompanied it to relay messages. Contact was made with ASR/MCU at Lerwick, who gave them the weather report and a course which would bring it within sight of the Sandra Light at Sumburgh Airport. As soon as DZ642 was within radio range of Sumburgh, the two other planes had to leave it, because they had only fuel enough to reach Peterhead. The last they heard was that Sumburgh warned "Marker 3" about high ground along its route.
The VHF reception was very bad, and the last Sumburgh heard from the Mosquito was that it had completed its first leg and was turning 250 degrees.

On the 6th of December, three men, George Mann of Uphouse, Laurence Malcolmson of Culbinsgarth and Adam Adamson of Brind, were driving sheep on Royl Field, when they found the wreck of the mosquito and its two dead crewmen.
The fuel tanks of the mosquito were empty when it was found, but we will never know if the reason of the crash was that they ran out of fuel and tried an emergency landing, or they had tried to fly below the clouds and therefore crashed into the hill.
The names of the two dead crewmen were :
F/L John Alexander Reid (Pilot) - buried in Winchester.
F/O Wesley Douglas Irwin RCAF (Navigator) - buried in Manor Park, London.

There are still many remains of the Mosquito on the crash site near the memorial.

Above Sandwick there is a peat road with a sign post that shows the way to the Memorial.
Most of the way there is no real walking path, but there are wooden marker poles with arrows that shows the direction.