SEVENTY years ago this week a Wellington bomber came crashing down into allotments in Sale.

The crash in Walton Park killed two members of the six man crew - but the death toll could have been far higher.

For the pilot, Flt Sgt Freddie Matthews, managed to lift the crippled bomber over the rooftops of nearby houses.

The plane roared low over the A56 on a pitch black night and headed towards homes on Walton Road, at 11.50pm on August 3, 1943.

The undercarriage snagged the top of a tree and a telegraph pole and wires before clipping the chimney stack of 5 and 7 Walton Road.

Then it crashed onto the vegetable allotments - now the Walton Park football pitch - and the front of the aircraft burst into flames.

Two of the crew were thrown clear and residents from the surrounding houses rushed to help other airmen out of the bomber - which fortunately was not loaded with bombs.

But ammunition from its machine gun exploded around the wreckage.

Local historian George Cogswell pieced together the dramatic events when he compiled a booklet on the largely forgotten Second World War crash, on its 50th anniversary, in 1993.

He said that by avoiding the houses the crew undoubtedly saved many civilian lives.

Pilot Flt Sgt Matthews, aged 26, though died of his injuries on the operating table at Altrincham General six hours after the crash.

Bomb aimer Sgt Edward Thompson, aged 21 - known as Claude - died in an ambulance on the way to Altrincham General.

Freddie and Claude were Australian and served with the Royal Australian Air Force.

The four other members of the crew survived - three of these were also Australians, the fourth was Irish, Sgt John ‘Tich’ McCarthy.

George, who updated his report in recent years, said he wanted “to pay tribute to the airmen who lost their lives, or who were injured in what appears to be their successful attempt to avoid civilian houses and their occupants.”.

One of the surviving crew members, wireless operator Keith Forbes, aged 20 at the time of the crash, provided invaluable information to George when he was compiling his booklet 20 years ago.

The crew were based at Lichfied, near Birmingham, where they had just finished a training course.

They were originally due to go on a raid dropping propaganda leaflets over France - known as a ‘nickel’ raid.

But that was called off at the last minute due to bad weather conditions over France, so instead they were instructed to do a mock bombing raid, with Blackpool Tower as the ‘target’.

But while flying over Manchester their port engine cut out. Then, disastrously, their other engine began to lose power.

“From that moment on, the aircraft was doomed,” wrote George.

Keith Forbes, who has since died, told George he remembered that they lost radio contact with base and, from his wireless operator’s position, saw the aircraft’s altitude plummet to 1,000 ft - it had been at 13,000ft - and the speed was down to 120mph.

He could not see outside from his position and then remembered nothing until waking up in hospital, where he was treated for a broken leg, ankle and wrist.

Due to his injuries he never saw active service again - which probably saved his life, as he was the only member of the crew to survive the rest of the war.

The other crew members were Fl. Sgt Eddie Newell, then 21, and Pilot Officer Clive Luther, then 29.

The nearby building that is now Walton Park Sports Centre was built in the winter of 1941/42 as an emergency food warehouse.