Archibald Sidney's Story.
Archibald Sidney Clegg was born in Stratford, Ontario on 25th December 1911 to parents James and Gertrude who were both UK born Canadian citizens. Before enlisting Archibald worked as a painter’s helper at Canadian National Railway company. He enlisted on 13th July 1942 and volunteered for aircrew duty. He completed his initial training as an Air Gunner before being posted to 34 OTU at Pennfield Ridge, New Brunswick. Whilst he was at 34 OTU he met up with Australian pilot James Alexander Johnston and Canadians Eloi Beaudry (Nav/AB) and Lawrence Fullerton (WOP/AG) and the 4 of them trained together in Ventura bombers.On 8th April 1943 Archibald and his other crew members embarked on a ship to UK arriving on 17th April 1943. On 25th May 1943 they were posted as a crew to 464 Squadron RAAF based at RAF Methwold in Norfolk. 464 Squadron flew Ventura light bombers. It was remarked in 464 Squadron’s Operation Book (ORB) that the newly arrived crew had arrived straight from the OTU and would require further training before they could be considered to be ready for operations. By August 1943 the squadron had moved to RAF Sculthorpe in Norfolk and on 18th August 1943 Archibald and his crew were ordered to carry out a nighttime cross country navigation exercise in Ventura AE688 following the route Base to Stafford to Rhyl to Douglas (Isle of Man) then return to base via the same route but adding Worcester to the route instead of Stafford. The crews were instructed to fly the route at 5000 feet altitude. However, at 2238hrs on 18th August AE688 flew into the south face of Mount Carnedd in Dyfed, Wales causing the instant death of all 4 crew members. An enquiry into the cause of the accident found that the primary cause was that the pilot had inexplicably decided to fly at 3,300 feet instead of 5000 feet as ordered. The aircraft was 30 miles off course at the time of the accident and lack of navigation experience was also cited as a contributing factor in the accident.
All four crew members were buried at Blacon Cemetery in Chester.
464 Squadron Ventura bomber
Memorials and parts of AE688 remain on Mount Carnedd
Court of Enquiry extract from Australian Archives record for pilot J. A. Johnston