Aircraft accidents on the North Yorkshire Moors.

Spitfire P8163 near Thimbleby Hall, Osmotherley.

On Sunday, 1st June 1941 the pilot of this aircraft was on a flight from Catterick when low cloud was encountered in the Osmotherley area, the aircraft flew into high ground near Thimbleby Hall at 21.20hrs and seriously injured the pilot. He was rescued but sadly died of his injuries afew hours later. The RAF's crash card, the Form AM1180, is missing from RAF Museum records so details regarding this incident are brief until some other information is found. I do not know where this aircraft crashed.

Spitfire P8163 was built to contract B981687/39/CB/23(c) by Vickers Armstrongs Ltd at Castle Bromwich. It was delivered to the RAF in January 1941 and after acceptance it was issued to 41 Squadron at Catterick on an unspecified date in early 1941. It suffered Cat.E2/FA damage in the above incident.

Pilot - Sgt Eric E Croker RNZAF (391826), aged 24, of Point Chevalier, Auckland, New Zealand. Buried Catterick Cemetery, Yorkshire.

The pilot and his headstone at Catterick Cemetery. Former Battle of Britain pilot Eric Croker was born on 1st January 1917 and was educated at Mt Albert Grammer and Thames High School. Before becoming a pilot he was an electrician with the Auckland Harbour Board in New Zealand. He was accepted into the RNZAF Civil Reserve of Pilots in August 1938 and gained his "A" licence on 9th March 1939. He began training at 1 EFTS on 16th January 1940, followed by 1 FTS on 11th March 1940 and gained his pilots badge on 7th May 1940. He was promoted to Sgt on 28th June the same year and left Rangitane for the UK soon after. He was sent to 1 Depot on 27th August 1940 followed by 6 OTU on 10th September to train on Hurricanes, he then was posted to 111 Squadron on 28th October and carried out 14 Operational flights with them. On 22nd October he was posted to 260 Squadron at Drem where carried out 23 Ops. He was posted to 41 Squadron at Catterick on 12th May 1941 to fly in Spitfires, he completed four Ops with this Unit before his accident on 1st June 1941. He died in hospital the day after the crash and had flown a total of 41 Operational flights with 235 hours flying to his name.