At 10.45hrs on 18th December 1942 the crew of this aircraft set out from Dalcross in Scotland to ferry the aircraft
Henlow in Bedfordshire. Before taking off the wireless transmitter was found to be not working but the crew took off
anyway. They were to make a refueling stop at Catterick on their way south but whilst over Yorkshire the weather
was turned bad. Catterick was not located, 10/10th's cloud cover was reported on this day, due to the wireless
being unservicable a diversion signal could not be passed to the aircraft to go to another airfield where a landing
could be safely made. It was thought that the pilot had flown on and after running low on fuel, had tried to land
the aircraft once darkness began to set in. The aircraft may have suffered engine trouble before its crash which
could be related to the lack of fuel. The pilot's choice of airfield could not have been worse, he made a attempted
forced landing at 12.15hrs (though quoted elsewhere as 17.10hrs, a serious difference of time) on Topcliffe's "Q"
Site decoy airfield near Sutton Bank at Cold Kirby, no doubt thinking it was a real airfield. Just before touching
down his undercarriage clipped a stone wall and the aircraft overturned on striking the ground near Garbutts Farm
killing the pilot and badly injuring his passenger. The aircraft was written off as following the crash.
Pilot - F/Sgt Alan F Martin RAF (932841), aged 21, of Ilford. Buried Manor Park Cemetery, Essex.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner (?) - Sgt George O Pitcher RAF (332458), injured.
The pilot was buried in a family plot Manor Park Cemetery, East Ham, London. He had a total of 512 hours flying to his name at the time of his death, 280 hours of which were on the Defiant. During a visit to London in March 2007 I was fortunate enough to have been able to visit
the cemetery and locate his grave. I would like to thank Ms Jan Briggs, Cemetery Manager for her help.
The correct identity of Sgt Pitcher may have been a George Osmond Pitcher born in Aston (Birmingham) in early
1902. This would mean he was very old for aircrew in 1942 but his service number (332458) suggests that he was
a civilian entrant from after March 1919. My thanks to air historian Alan Clark for this additional information.
Wreckage from the aircraft which is said to have included the Merlin engine was said to be present at the site until the 1980's,
I have yet locate the crash site but am told the Merlin is under a track near the farm. A teacher at Easingwold School is said to have recovered part of this Merlin engine although claimed it to have been from a "Spitfire" crash at Sutton Bank - there were no Spifires that
crashed here.
Defiant N3458 was built to contract 751867/38 by Boulton & Paul Ltd at Wolverhampton and delivered to the
RAF in January 1941. After acceptance it was issued to 255 Squadron at Kirton in Lindsey in the same month.
The unit moved to Hibaldstow on 15th May 1941. The aircraft transferred to 456 Squadron at Valley on 29th
August 1941 and suffered a minor Cat.A/FA accident on an unspecified date, it was repaired on site. It was
later transferred to 256 RAAF Squadron at Squires Gate on 5th December 1941 and again suffered another
Cat.A/FA mishap on 11th February 1942 when the undercarriage failed to lower after an air test. It was
again repaired on site and was later transferred to MU storage in May 1942 when 256 Sqdn ceased operating
Defiants. It was issued to 2 AGS at Dalcross on an unspecified date. It was written off with Cat.E2/FA
damage in the incident detailed above on 18th December 1942.