War Time Commemorative Sign Investigated
Chris Perkins MVO, a member of the Probus Club of Basingstoke and retired RAF Squadron Leader, came across a memorial dedicated to Spitfire pilot Sgt Bernard Bryn Goodall on a grass verge close to the church in Weston Patrick, south of Basingstoke. Goodall, from New Zealand, crashed and was killed outright in August 1942.
Investigations by Chris Perkins established that this aviator had been born near Auckland, from family stock who had emigrated from Staffordshire in the 1860s. Goodall enlisted in the Royal New Zealand Air Force in January 1940. Following initial flight training this was supplemented in Canada under the Empire Training Scheme, earning his ‘Wings’ in November 1941.
Sgt Goodall NZ/411981 RNZAF arrived at the Personnel Reception Centre, Bournemouth on 19th December and on 10th February 1942 was posted to No 58 Operational Training Unit at Grangemouth near Edinburgh where he completed training on Supermarine Spitfires. He then joined No 41 Squadron, partaking in various patrols and missions across the UK.
On the day of his crash, Saturday 15th August 1942, Goodall’s Spitfire Mk Vb, P8607, Code sign EB-C, was en route from RAF Debden in Essex to RAF Tangmere near Chichester in Sussex. No 41 Squadron was being assembled there in preparation for the ill-fated Dieppe raid that took place four days later.
With low level cloud layer, he went off course and crashed at Blounce Farm with the plane being part buried it caught fire immediately. The Board of Inquiry attributed the crash to instrument failure and poor weather conditions.
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