This 219 Squadron aircraft took off from Catterick airfield at 02.10hrs on 21st March 1940 with the crew tasked with flying a night patrol over the North Sea in an area off Whitby. The regular route from Catterick out toward the coast normally saw the aircraft fly east from Catterick but to the north of the highest part of the North Yorkshire Moors to avoid the high ground. Unfortunately the low cloud at the time saw this crew drift off what would have been the intended route and fly a route that would take the aircraft in a west - east track but a few miles south of the intended. While flying outbound to the coast and when flying through low cloud the aircraft clipped high ground on the ridge between Bilsdale and Bransdale and crashed at around 02.25hrs. The pilot was believed to have descended to attempt to fly below the low cloud to check that he was flying in the correct direction but struck the ground while doing so. It was thought that he assumed he was over low ground when he was actually flying over hills rising to over 1400 feet. Both airmen were killed instantly in the resulting crash and aircraft broke up, with sections catching fire. When the Blenheim was reported overdue and had failed to return to Catterick by 03.00hrs it was reported as missing. The wreckage was then found by a gamekeeper at around 10.00hrs when going about his business on the moorland for the Duncombe Estate on Cockayne Ridge, he then contacted the police. The bodies of the two crew were recovered to Kirkbymoorside where an inquest into the airmen's deaths was held on 23rd March 1940.

Blenheim L1117 was built to contract 527114/36 by The Bristol Aeroplane Co Ltd. at Filton, Bristol. It was delivered to the RAF in February 1939 and issued to 82 Squadron at Cranfield on an unknown date. On 19th July 1939 and then on 25th July 1939 82 Squadron provided nine aircraft each time for a mass flight over France and L1117 may well have been one of these aircraft used. The squadron received their first Blenheim MkIV on 13th August 1939 and began to transfer out their MkI's. 82 Squadron ceased operating Blenhiem MkI's on 25th August 1939 when the unit moved to Watton so this aircraft must have been transferred to 57 Squadron at Upper Heyford around that date. On 24th September 1939 57 Squadron moved to France and this aircraft does not appear to have gone with them. The aircraft probably went to an unidentified MU before being issued to 219 Squadron. 219 Squadron formed on 4th October 1939 at Catterick and they received their first two Blenheims on 30th October 1939 from M.U. at St.Athan. Other Blenheims arrived during November 1939 from M.U. at St.Athan, Hullavington and Kemble. The purpose being to operate Blenheim's as fighters to protect shipping in the North Sea. Whilst stating the obvious, it suffered Cat.W/FA in the crash detailed above. The aircraft's AM Form 78 is required to get the history complete with dates of transfer.

Pilot - Sgt Horace Philips RAF (562840), aged 27. Buried Catterick Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - AC1 Frank Prosser RAF (622364), aged 21. Buried Garndiffaith (St John's) Burial Ground, Monmouthshire, Wales.

Horace Phillips was the son of Stephen Evan and Mary Ann (nee Thomas) Phillips and was born on 1st August 1912 at Fochriw, in the Pontlottyn area of Glamorgan. In the 1921 census his father was a coal miner working for the Powell Dyffryn Company Ltd at Pontlottyn. He was known as "Duke" to his friends, he had joined the RAF as an Aircraft Apprentice at Halton in the late 1920's. The photograph on the left shows him as a sixteen year old in 1928. He later saw service in the Middle East and India with the photograph in the centre showing him in India in 1928. He became a pilot in the late 1930's, gaining his Wings in October 1939, five months prior to this fatal crash. He is listed in the 219 Squadron records as being posted from 10 FTS into 219 Squadron on 16th December 1939. He had been married for only six months when he was killed, having married Beatrice Meyler Bartlett, in Barry, Glamorgan. At the time of his death he had recorded a total of 69 hours on the Blenheim, with a further 190 hours on other aircraft types, 119 hours of these were in the last six months of his life. The photograph on the right shows his headstone at Catterick Cemetery. Since creating this website I have been fortunate to have been contacted by Mrs S. Knock in 2006, she is the niece of the pilot, I wish to thank her for the information she has been able to give me and I understand Sgt Phillips widow was living at the time and I hope that this webpage in someway keeps his memory alive. She never remarried. I express my thanks Sgt Phillips widow and her niece for allowing these photographs to be shown on this website and for the help they have given me regarding his life. At the time this contact was one of the first I had made with any living relative of anyone involved in a flying accident in Yorkshire.

Frank Prosser's grave in St John's Graveyard, Garndiffaith, Wales (Photographs Mr Ken Clark).

Frank was the son of Alfred and Ellen (nee Green) Prosser and was born in 1919 at Abersychan. He grew up in Talywain and attended Pentwyn Council School, Abersychan and Twmpath School, Pontypool. After school he worked for a time for a grocer in Snatchwood before moving to work in Coventry. Frank joined the RAF in 1938. At his funeral service, Rev Brychan Lewis, pastor of Noddfa Baptist Church officiated, assisted by a Mr Clarence Martin. His coffin was draped in the Union Jack and the Last Post was sounded by Mr Cecil Roden of Pontnewynydd British Legion. The burial register says he was from Pontnewynydd. He came from a family of military tradition, his father had served in the Boar War and his elder brother, Henry Prosser, had served in the Army for many years prior to the Second World War, having been recalled when war broke out. Henry was killed in action in the Middle East later in the War, another brother died aged three in 1919 and is buried in the same grave as Frank. I thank Mr Ken Clark for following up an email to him, for photographing AC1 Prosser's gravestone and for searching for his obituary for me and without which the information shown here would be very brief.

I first visited the general area of this crash site in the early 2000's and located very little with most of what I did find being in the stream. After severe flooding that occurred during the summer of 2005 I revisited this crash site in September 2005 to survey any changes. The torrential rain that occurred during the space of a few hours in June 2005 caused massive flooding to area of the Western area of the North Yorkshire Moors. This crash site was one that was effected by the river levels, we wanted to see what damage had been done to previously located wreckage. The ammount of water that must have passed over the waterfall must have been incredible. The area below the waterfall had suffered badly from the flood, the water had removed everything from the river bank and carved out a fresh river channel. All wreckage that did exist at the very foot of the waterfall had gone. There was a cylinder from one of the engines at the site in 2004, this was no longer there, the tyre which remained had also gone though I was to find in October 2006 washed about a mile down stream! The cylinder was probably covered by a big landslip downstream. The trees suffered damage during gales in 2009 and then all remaining trees across the crash site were felled in 2013.

Both the aircraft's engines were still at the site in the 1970s and both are believed to have been recovered. There is a suggestion that an A.T.C. group (Henlow ATC?) combined with a helicopter got one out but the where abouts of this and the other I have yet to learn. (Photographs by the late Mr Norman Helm, via Mrs C. Helm).

Two photographs from the collection of Mr Graham Sharpe taken when he visited in the 1970s. My thanks to Mr Sharpe for these photographs. In the late 1970s trees were planted across the area of the crash site which then hid the remaining wreckage.

Myself with some wreckage found on my first trip to the crash site in May 2002 which was in 2009 was still at the site. After the trees were felled all this was presumably crushed under the wheels of vehicles or buried under waste wood.

Wreckage being found in tree roots by me in 2002 (left) and was later photographed (right) in 2007 after being washed and the wording "WINCH" (?) was found stencilled on the part.

In October 2009 I was passing the area and spotted a number of pieces that had been uncovered by persons unknown following gales that brought down trees at the site. The photograph above shows a typical Blenheim part number - the Blenheim "FB" prefix on a stainless steel part. I returned to the site in October 2013 to see what damage the completed tree felling had done to the site, the workers appear to have been careful and was all pretty much as I saw it before the trees were felled.

A further piece with the number shown below, again with the "FB" prefix but the with the "F" oxidised away.

Much lower down the narrow valley is a collection of further Blenheim wreckage which I believe also is parts of Blenheim L1117, it has been suggested that they were part of the second Blenheim (L1449) to have crashed in the same general area but they would appear to be too far from the assumed crash site of the second Blenheim. If this is, which I totally believe is, part of L1117 then how it got there is open to speculation, perhaps recovered from the stream?

Back to 1940 monthly table.

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