A 58 Squadron Whitley landing at Linton on Ouse.
This Whitley "O for Orange" took off from Linton on Ouse at 19.00hrs on 20th October 1940 for Ops to bomb
the Skoda factory in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia. The pilot, P/O Brown, was injured by flak over the target area
so the second pilot, Sgt Adlam, had taken over for the return leg of the flight. On its return to England
the crew became lost and ran short of fuel. At the same time a Luftwaffe aircraft of the 1/NJG2 unit was
flying an specialist intruder mission over the north of England and it is claimed that the Whitley was shot
down by this aircraft; piloted by Hauptmann Karl Hulshoff. The Whitley crashed into the hillside at Botton Head
at 06.12hrs on 21st October where upon it caught fire. The aircraft had been with the squadron for just eighteen
days. As for the Luftwaffe claim, it was the first known success against a Bomber Command aircraft by a German
intruder over the British mainland although Hulshoff claimed the aircraft to have been a Hereford! Of the five Whitley
crew sadly three died on the moor and one later in hospital and the fifth survived.
The RAF took what they wanted from the aircraft after the crash but after the War a local farmer sledded
some of the larger remains away, possibly cashing it in with the scrap man. A number of years later the new
tenant farmer at the same farm did the same with more of the aircraft's remains. I contacted the son of
this second farmer in 2004 and he was led to believe that Sgt Green survived the actual crash after being
thrown from the plane during the crash. Although this prolonged his life only slightly it saved him from
being killed in the aircraft on impact. The same farmer also told me that a land slip occured from above
where the aircraft crashed asa resultof the crash. The photograph taken at the time (shown below) does seem
to agree with this as there seems to be large rocks in the foreground of the photo.
Whitley T4171 was built to contract 38599/39 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd at Baginton and was awaiting collection on 25th August 1940. It was
delivered to 6 MU on 6th September 1940 who issued it to 58 Squadron on 3rd October 1940. It sustained Cat.W/FB damage on the 21st October
1940 in the incident detailed above and was struck off charge on 27th October 1940. The aircraft was a replacement at 58 Squadron for Whitley N1426
which had been transferred to 19 OTU at Kinloss.
Pilot - F/O Ernest Henry Brown RAF (41550), aged 25, of Streatham, London. Buried Wandsworth (Streatham) Cemetery, London.
Pilot - Sgt Leonard Frank Percy Adlam RAFVR (745662), aged 25, of Farnborough, Hampshire. Buried Farnborough Cemetery, Hampshire. Died on moor.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Marcel Cuthbert Caryll-Tilkin RAFVR (902238), aged 29, of New York, USA. Buried Thornaby on Tees Cemetery, Yorkshire (now Cleveland).
Observer - Sgt Cyril Sidney Garrick Green RAFVR (747715), aged 31, of Evesham. Buried Evesham Cemetery, Worcestershire. Died on 23rd October 1940 in hospital of internal injuries.
Rear Gunner - Sgt Robert Ernest Langfield RAF (614301), aged 23, of Doncaster, Yorkshire. Injured.
Len Adlam and his gravestone at Farnborough Cemetery. My thanks to author Mr Chris Yeoman for these photographs and copyright remains with him. He has kindly allowed their reproduction on this webpage and asks that if anyone would like to use them elsewhere could they ask his permission first and he can be contacted through using my email link
and I will forward any emails to him. He has also done a superb documentation of this accident with details at ""www.fightinghigh.com/bombercommandfailedtoreturn.htm"". Len Adlam was born in the Medway district of Kent in 1915 and had married there in 1934.
Sgt Caryll-Tilkin (or Caryll de Tilkin, the correct version of his name remains uncertain) had survived a ditching of Whitley W1427 on 3rd September 1940 when he and his then crew ran out of fuel on return from Ops to Genova. The crew of four came ashore at Margate, Kent in the aircraft's dinghy. Research into his family has proved interesting, the CWGC online databse gives little clues as to his parents other than he was the son of Ivan and Maud Caryll. His father, Ivan Marie Henri Tilkin, a Belgian composer and conductor of operattas and Edwardian musical comedies and had a hand in forty works in his life. He was better known by his pen name of Ivan Caryll. Ivan was born in Belgium but moved to London in 1882 amnd became one of the most prominent London stage composers of the early 20th Century. His first marriage was to Geraldine Ulmar, a Gilbert and Sullivan singer and actress. He later married Marcel's mother Maud Hill before moving to New York in 1911 and composed a number of Broadway musicals where he died in 1921.
Marcel's sister Primrose Caryll became an actress but she must have been to Ivan's first wife as she was acting in New York around the time of her fathers death. It does mean however that Marcel must have been born in New York, adding confirmation to this is that there is no record of his birth in England.s
Sgt Green's grave in Evesham cemetery, Worcestershire. His death was registered in the Durham South Eastern district of Durham confirming that he was alive when left the crash site.
Botton Head - in the centre of the photograph.
A photograph of the Whitley taken at the time of crash and first published in "White Rose Base" book by Brian Rapier.
Rapier's "Warplanes Return 1" also states that an engine was buried at the site, it is not clear whether it is still
there but I would doubt it.
The same view in 2003.
John Skinn, Will Lund and myself visited the crash site for the first time in early 2003. Pine trees had been planted
just under the crash site, one large peice was found in these woods still baring its dark green paint. Small remains are
still to be found above the tree line including sections of the aircraft's main centre section.
Some of the wreckage as it was in 2003 and some of these sections have now migrated from the crash site.
An Armstrong Whitworth stamped part, possibly part of a window/glazed section, found at the crash site in 2010.
A .303 bullet case found at the crash site in 2010 dated 1937.
A photo of further wreckage in a gully taken in the 1970s, this is now part of the woodland area
below the main site. My thanks to Mr Graham Sharpe for this photograph.
I have since been back to the crash site many times and have probably located about all the wreckage
still on the surface at the site.
Ernest Brown was born in Wandsworth in 1915, he received his commission on an unknown date but he rose to F/O on 3rd September 1940 and usually at this stage in the War this was in the region of a year after being made P/O on probation. Most textual references list his rank as being P/O when this aircraft crashed on the North Yorkshire Moors
where as the London Gazette gives his rank being F/O from the date given.
Robert Langfield was born in March 1917 in Doncaster, Yorkshire. He died in Doncaster in January 1997. I thank his grand-daughter for contacting me in November 2010.
