Incident at Salisbury Plain - 13 april 1942

[Bob Bacon]

I have received the following request from Mike Hooley

"Please see the attached which is self-explanatory. I have put it on The Royal Welsh Veterans Website in the hope that some information may be forthcoming. I have mentioned that I am NOT inviting comment or opinion but merely any information as to remaining family members or friends – I do hope that someone comes forward and that it does not start any political discussion!"

[tony.t.corbett]

Hi Bob,

Cocket is a suburb of Swansea and St Peters was the church where Harry Secombe's Brother Fred was the Vicar so this would suggest that 2lt R Mattey was from Swansea area


regards TC

[ap1]

Here's some more info:

TRAGEDY AT IMBERThe area around Imber on the Salisbury Plain in England, comprising of around 91,000 acres, is the traditional training ground for the British Army. On April 13, 1942, during a demonstration of fire-power from a squadron of Hurricanes, the pilot of the 6th plane to make the attack inadvertently fired into the crowd of invited military spectators. He had mistaken the spectators for the rows of dummy soldiers placed on the ground as if in marching order.The demonstration was immediately cancelled and all aircraft ordered to return to base. Fifteen minutes later some thirty military and civilian ambulances arrived to convey the dead and injured to hospitals. Twenty five officers and men were killed and seventy one injured. The Hurricane pilot, just approaching his 21st birthday, was found guilty of an error of judgement by the Court of Inquiry. (On June 28, 1942, seventy-six days after the tragic incident, he was shot down and reported missing in a sortie over Cherbourg)

[Aled Roberts]

Pte Parry's relatives at the time of death : Sidney and Emily Parry; husband of Dulcia Beryl Parry, of Cwmyniscoy.

2/LT Mattey was married to Elsie Mattey, of Bournemouth, Hampshire