Wrecked in gale. 19/3/1940 (RAF Service) A sudden gale sprang up at Whitchurch and all available staff ran out to attempt to save the tethered aircraft dispersed round the aerodrome, with Heracles and Hanno being the most vulnerable. Two ground crew, Griffiths and Caseley, reached Hanno in time to climb aboard, but Heracles was already airborne flying backwards with tethering pickets pulled adrift, and was soon blown through the boundary barbed-wire fence, to be wrecked in the field beyond. The two ground crew managed to start Hanno's two upper engines, but a final violent gust blew the machine backwards in a flying attitude to collapse beside Heracles.