On 20th March 1941 a Hurricane crash landed at 16.25hrs near Cross Butts Farm, just west of Whitby on the Guisborough road. The main reason for the crash landing was put at a fuel shortage, the gauges for the main tanks were found to be not working correctly. The pilot made the landing with the wheels up and he was unable to contact his base as his radio set was also not working correctly but due to winds he had drifted out of range of radio contact. The aircraft was damaged to a "Cat.R" degree. It was taken away and repaired.
Hurricane P2887 was built to contract 962371/38 by Gloster Aircraft Co. Ltd at Hucclecote and delivered to the RAF in January 1940. After acceptance at M.U. it was issued to 5 OTU at Aston Down on 15th March 1940. 5 OTU became 55 OTU at Aston Down on 1st November 1940. The aircraft moved with the unit to Usworth in February 1941. In the above incident it suffered Cat.B/FA damage. It was repaired and possibly converted to Mk.II configuration. It was then issued to 1 AACU at Carew Cheriton on an unspecified date in 1941. It transferred to 1608 (AACU) Flt. at Aberporth on an unspecified date. It later went to 595 (AACU) Squadron which formed on 1st December 1943 at Aberporth absorbing 1608 Flt. It was finally struck off charge on 17th June 1944.
Pilot - Sgt Lancelot W R Rogers RAFVR (921992), of Bristol. Uninjured.
The pilot had a total of 101 hours of flying time, only nine of which were on a Hurricane at the time of this incident near Whitby. F/O Lancelot Rogers RAFVR (126718) was killed in a flying accident on 15th February 1944 in the Bristol area. He was from Bristol and is buried in the city's Arnos Vale cemetery. He was 31 years old. He lost his life along with F/Lt Frederick J Garvey RAFVR DSO DFC (undoubtably a very fine pilot) when Oxford LW776 crashed into Headley Park, about a mile west of Whitchurch airfield near Bristol. Garvey was buried in Bath. Rogers may have been screened and took an instructing role at Whitchurch, a handy airfield located not far from his home, and perhaps a welcome break for him.
I would welcome any information about a more detailed crash location near Cross Butts Farm, to allow me photograph the general area of the crash.