Goxhill Diversion – Any Port in a Storm
The unscheduled visit by Johnnie Ross-Myring and crew to Goxhill.
An edited account from the Memoirs of Maurice Rault, the navigator in this crew.
Maurice Rault
Ross-Myring and his crew undertook their final exercise from 1662 HCU at Blyton, a 6 hour cross country flight, in early 1945. As they were in the final stages of their flight and approaching RAF Blyton they were warned by Blyton Flying Control that there was fog the airfield and they were to divert and land at Elsham Wolds. Maurice Rault, the navigator, calculated a new course for the short distance to Elsham Wolds and advised his pilot accordingly.
The weather was deteriorating rapidly with much low cloud and fog. Then through a gap in the cloud they saw some open ground and an airfield. In the increasingly poor visibility Ross-Myring decided to land at the airfield in view .
The airfield in question was Goxhill which looked far too small to land a Lancaster they had no alternative.With great skill the pilot zigzagged twice to lose height and put the Lancaster down at the exact spot where the runway started. The aircraft came to a halt at the very end of the runway. A fine piece of airmanship in appalling weather conditions.
Goxhill airfield under construction in 1940
They had landed in a strange place. The control tower did not answer any of Ross-Myring's calls and there were none of the usual procedures that followed the landing of a 4 engined bomber. There was not a single plane parked in sight and no sign of life. It was a very eerie experience
The fog continued to roll onto the airfield hiding all the buildings from view.
After 5 minutes a small truck appeared driven by a WAAF accompanied by an old Flight Sergeant.
He asked “What are you doing here ? This airfield closed down months ago. And how on earth did you manage to land a Lancaster here without crashing.
Ross- Myring laughed and replied “ I convinced myself the aircraft was smaller. “
At this point the WAAF welcomed them to Goxhill and informed the crew that she has asked the cook to prepare a hot meal for the crew and they were to follow her.
The Flight Sergeant went on to explain that the American fighter training units had left Goxhill sometime ago and the airfield had reverted to the RAF. He and 8 soldiers plus 12 WAAFs were posted to the station to keep watch over the equipment.
He continued “ I think they have lost our file and nobody knows we still exist. However we do not mind so long as we get our food and pay. “
The arrival of Ross-Myring and his crew caused great excitement to the few personnel trapped in this deserted backwater and they were entertained to a splendid eggs and bacon meal and best coffee !
At this point Ross-Myring suggested to their new found friends that they all go to the local pub and the crew would pay. This was met with universal approval, apart from one RAF crew member who grumbled about having to pay but was quickly put in his place.
They all set off to the local Goxhill hostelry which will have been the Blocklesby Hunt near the Goxhill railway station. I know of any other pub that has ever been in Goxhill, certainly not in the 20th C. That pub has now sadly closed as the site has recently been sold for building. Goxhill is now quite publess !
The Brocklesby Hunt Public House
After an enjoyable evening they all returned to the airfield and the next morning the fog had cleared completely. Ross-Myring and his crew bade their new found friends a sad adieu and took off for Blyton.
The Lancaster at top speed over the control tower as a farewell salute and the Goxhill contingent on the ground waved their appreciation and goodbyes for a long time.
Note – Goxhill was opened in 1941 but never considered suitable for night heavy bomber operations due to the proximity to the Hull defences and I would think the mist off the Humber Estuary. The Americans took the airfield over in 1942 to use for daylight operational flight training for fighter units just transferred to the UK from the USA.
The Americans finally left in December 1944 and RAF Goxhill was not used for the remainder of the war.
I have not heard of any other Lancaster or 4 engined aircraft that landed at Goxhill and the incident described above is quite possibly the only time it ever happened.
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Sir Maurice Rault.
Maurice was born in 1920 and brought up on the island of Mauritius. Pre war he worked briefly as a teacher at St. Joseph's College. On June 17, 1940 he joined the Royal Air Force and later qualified as a navigator serving with both 103 Squadron and 582 Squadrons.
After the war Maurice opted for a career in the law. He went on to study at the Middle Temple and came in second among more than 500 applicants from Cambridge and Oxford universities among others. He became a lawyer in June 1949 and a magistrate in 1952. He was transferred to the Intermediate Criminal Court in 1960, held the post of Master and Registrar in 1967 and was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions in October 1968. He became Judge in 1970, acceded to the office of Chief Judge in 1978 and was elevated to the rank of Knight in the same year. Sir Maurice Rault presided over the destiny of the judiciary between 1978 and 1982, when he retired.
While he was Chief Judge, he was called upon to assume the functions of Acting Governor General on several occasions. In 1985, the University of Mauritius conferred on him the title "Doctor Honoris Causa".
Sir Maurice was the first Mauritian Chancellor of the University of Mauritius and led an important Commission of Enquiry into drug trafficking issues on the island. He was also instrumental in introducing a bill into the Mauritian Parliament proposing the abolition of the death penalty on the island which was eventually passed.
Throughout his life he was a great lover of the classics, literature and poetry and also an author.
He sadly passed away in 2004
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The RAF biography of Sir Maurice is now available. See below.
The Incidental Navigator - Sir Maurice Rault, QC.
Edited by Sean Feast from a translation by Danielle Lagesse.
Maurice Rault was no ordinary Bomber Command navigator, and this no ordinary memoir. Born on the small island of Mauritius, Maurice is drawn by a love of two countries – Britain and France – to join the RAF to help rid the continent of Nazi tyranny. He is also driven by a romantic ideal, and a sense of Chivalry from a previous age, to put right what he sees as a terrible wrong, a betrayal of France, and a burning passion to see the Allies prevail. With 103 Squadron at Elsham Wolds he experiences the terror of bombing operations over Germany in the last stages of the war, including a dramatic operation to Bremen which is nearly his last. In a few short weeks, his Squadron loses eleven crews – more than seventy men – at a time when the Germans still fail to acknowledge they are beaten. At Elsham he joins a secret society known as ‘the zoo’, to share a love of books and culture as an escape from the horrors of war. Through ‘Gilbert’, ‘Nestor’, the ‘Bigamist’, and the hideous ‘Palmer’, Maurice reveals a different side to war, of compassion and loathing for men facing similar fears. Whether these characters are actual people or imaginary is for the reader to decide, but his affection for his squadron, for Elsham, for ‘the Butcher’, and for his fellow man is very real indeed.
9 in x 6 in, 163 pages, £12 plus p&p.
The book is available from
Amazon - here
Mention the War Books - here
David Fell with thanks to the Rault family.
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