Fighter’s crash gave my dad’s wheelbarrow a lift
A WHEELBARROW used on a farm for decades was harbouring an incredible Second World War story, it has been revealed.
When a fighter pilot crashed on land in the lower Lliw Valley, Mansel Glasbrook’s father used the opportunity to upgrade his barrow with a new wheel.
On the night of November 25, 1941, Stanislav Tocauer, a Czechoslovakian pilot flying with the 312 Czech Squadron, based on Fairwood Common, encountered difficulties while returning from a sortie.
He was not that far from home, but was forced to attempt to land in fields above the lower Lliw Valley reservoir near the village of Felindre.
Unfortunately it was not a smooth landing as 78-year-old farmer Mansel Glasbrook, who was just two at the time, recalls.
“It was a Czechoslovakian pilot in a Spitfire who crashed and fair play to him,” he said. “There was a flat field in which he could have landed, but there were quite a lot of cattle there, so he avoided them and tried to land in the next field, which had a bit of a slope.
“He touched the fence wire, I believe, just as he was going over and he crash landed. The plane must have nose-dived into the ground as it was completely written off.
“They sent some soldiers to guard it, but gave my father one of the wheels because of what had happened.”
And Mr Glasbrook’s father and his uncle made good use of the wheel.
“He put it on a wheelbarrow,” he said. “The old wheelbarrows then had wooden wheels with a steel ring around, but when you came to a step or something it was a job to push them; but with this wheel it was easier.”
While the wooden barrow has not survived the test of time, the wheel has. Mr Glasbrook said: “I’ve kept it because we owe so much to everybody who took part in the war effort.”
He added: “I remember my father telling me the pilot had a mop of black hair. It was unusual back then because everybody in the forces had short cropped hair.
“I heard that he survived the war and I was glad about that.”
The bachelor recalled another wartime adventure of which he also has a souvenir.
He said: “One night two incendiary bombs came down through the farmhouse roof. The attic was in flames. Fortunately, we had some sand delivered a few days before and they went up the stairs with buckets of it to put the flames out.”