The 80th Anniversary of a Balivanich Wartime Aviation Accident

By 1942, WWII activity was stepping up on Benbecula, largely due to the presence of RAF 206 Squadron with their fleet of B17 MK1 Flying Fortresses based at Balivanich Airport, tasked with the duty of carrying out anti-submarine (U boat) sweeps of the North Atlantic, between the Hebrides and Iceland.

At 0559 on 6th October 1942, B17 Flying Fortress FL454 (Fortress J) under the command of twenty six year old Pilot Officer Jack Edmond Delarue of the Royal Australian Air Force, took off from Balivanich to undertake a night operational anti-submarine patrol west of the Hebrides.

As Jack Delarue and his crew took off to head west, another aircraft taxied directly in their path, and to avoid collision, Pilot Delarue was forced to pull his aircraft off the ground, only to stall and crash into the sea a short distance from the end of the runway. The recorded time of the ditching was 0603 on 6th October 1942.

Five of the plane’s crew, including Jack Delarue, were killed and two were injured but survived the crash. The two survivors who happened to be in the aircraft wireless cabin at the time of the crash, scrambled ashore in a rubber dinghy.

Four days later, on 10th October 1942, Jack Delarue, born in Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia on 24th March 1916, was laid to rest in Nunton Cemetery with full military honours alongside fellow Australian crewmen Flight Sergeants, John Flower Guppy and John Blatch Taplin, both Wireless Air Gunners.

The officiating Chaplain on the day was Rev. Neil MacKay, Benbecula Church of Scotland minister at that time.

Alasdair MacEachen