Interview with
Jimmy Prentice (1989)

(Jimmy and Corran had flown together
in 253 Squadron in North Africa)
© Paul Sortehaug

Corran Ashworth and Jim Prentice
© David Jackson

Corran Ashworth RAF (left),
and Jim Prentice RNZAF
- Jemmapes, Algeria, 1943

PS (Paul Sortehaug): Corran Ashworth was a friend of yours. He followed you to both Europe and North Africa.

JP (Jimmy Prentice): I think he got to Europe before I did.

PS: That might be so. Do you remember the circumstances in which he was lost at all?

JP: Yes. Well, on the Squadron they sent around just a typed sheet NYR (not yet returned) and I saw Ashworth’s name and said to the CO (that) he was an old friend of mine. He said to take the Auster and find out. I flew over there and I was introduced to a chap who was flying with Ash when it happened. I said ‘Is there any show?’ and he said no.

The story I was given was that he was dive-bombing barges crossing the Seine River, and the Mustang carried 1,000 pound bombs under each wing. The bombs were detonated by a device which, as the air pressure increased, the bomb went off before it actually hit the ground by this device going into a concave shape. There was a bit of talk that sometimes these bombs would explode prematurely. I was told that he did at the last moment direct the Mustang on to a barge, and that he crashed on to the barge on the Seine River. That was it!

Paul Sortehaug further notes, in correspondence with Vince Ashworth:

“Now I am fairly sure Jim could be correct about the details because he and your brother were good friends, and as he states, he flew over with the express intention of finding out what had happened. What is more, Corran was lost on 3 August 1944, and Jim was shot down and captured a fortnight later, so his visit to 65 Sqdn must have been within a very short time of Corran going missing. In other words, the information he got would have been relatively fresh news.”

“To add further support to the bomb theory, I can tell you that I had been in touch with Jamie Jameson over the loss of the Englishman Jacko Holmes (C/O 197 sqdn). 197 (Typhoons) also dabbled with dive-bombing, and Jacko was thought to have had a bomb explode prematurely. I raised the incident in a newsletter I circulate, and Jamie wrote to me to tell me that they had a lot of trouble with premature detonation in his Mustang Wing in Normandy in 1944. Jamie was in command of 122 Wing, which in August of 1944 incorporated the 3 Mustang Sqdns, one of which was Corran's.”