At 19.15hrs on the 13th of October 1942 the crew on this aircraft took off from Syerston airfield for Ops to Kiel. 288 aircraft
of various types were tasked with the operation. The Germans operated a decoy fire site away from
Kiel and this was partially successful in attracting at least half of the bombing force to drop
their bombs in the open countryside, dispite this forty one Germans were later reported as being killed on the ground.
In the early hours of the following morning and on the return leg of the flight the crew of this aircraft became lost, and flew too far
north of their Lincolnshire base and over the North Yorkshire Moors. The aircraft was not flying high enough when it crashed into a fairly flat section of moor
at 01.30hrs while flying through poor weather. The aircraft caught fire on crashing and would eventually burn itself out. Navigational errors were blamed for the crash along with the pilots
decision to go below the 1000 feet height to try and aid
locating where they were, a common cause for crashes in the areas of high ground in Yorkshire. Whilst there is no evidence to prove it,
it seems likely that all the survivors either escaped on their own accord or were helped from the burning aircraft by fellow airmen and possibly those who would
later be confirmed dead were also dragged out before fire took over the aircraft completely.
The navigator on this flight
is reported to have volunteered to have flown with this crew on this trip after the crew's regular navigator (Sgt N M Cymbalist) was
unable to make the flight as he was sick. He was sadly one of those killed in the crash. One of the air gunners, Sgt Lund, is said to have
struggled off the moor to a nearby farm house, probably down into Bilsdale (or its branch of Tripsdale) and to Hagg House Farm being the nearest farm,
where he raised the alarm (I have been told that he had broken
both of his ankles so this was some feat in itself). The pilot had initially survived the crash, though his condition is not known and
following help arriving he was taken to the Adela Shaw Orthopaedic Hospital in Kirkbymoorside, where he sadly died on the 15th of October 1942.
"Hagg House Moor" is the location often quoted as the location of the crash, this is infact an error, the aircraft actually crashed at the summit of Todd Intake Moor at
Crookstaff Hill. The error probably is due to an inorrect distance from Thirsk given in a number of source, 14 miles NE of Thirsk instead of 15 miles.
The RAF clear up team did a good job of clearing the site what did remains has all but gone in later years. A sign erected by the Nawton Tower Estate who own the land states
that metal detecting is not permitted on the moor which almost certainly refers to activities at this crash site and the Estate having caught people in the act previously.
Lancaster W4233 was built to contract B69274/40 by A.R. Roe Ltd in Manchester and delivered directly to 61 Squadron on 19th September 1942.
The AM Form 78 states the aircraft was Cat.E/FB (Missing) on 14th October 1942 and it was not officially reported as "found". The aircraft was
struck off charge on 14th October 1942 with total flying time of 47.25 hours.
Those who lost their lives as a result of this crash were :
Pilot - F/Sgt Henry E Game RAF (1262786), aged 27, of West Southbourne, Bournemouth, buried Bournemouth. Survived crash but died
from his injuries on 15 Oct 1942.
Navigator (Air Obs) - F/O Leonard C R Leach RCAF (J/7227), aged 21, of Dryden, Ontario, Canada. Buried Milland, Sussex.
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Ronald Court RAFVR (1318105), aged 19, of Streatham, London. Buried Streatham Park Cemetery, London.
Those injured were:
Flight Engineer - Sgt Harry Scattergood RAF - injured.
Wireless Op/Air Gunner - Sgt Lawrence Sidney James Hamblett RAF (1187564), of Hove, Brighton and Hove - injured.
Air Gunner - Sgt Ernest Charles Hawkins RAF (1315038) - injured.
Rear Gunner - Sgt Edmund T Lund RAFVR (994674) - injured, two broken ankles. Of Nelson, Lancashire.
F/O Leach's grave in Sussex (photo Jim Rutland). His hometown newspaper, the Dryden Observer made mention on the 7th of August 1942 that on the 3rd of August
he took part in a raid over Dusseldorf. "All of the nine Canadians were pleased with results
and expressed joy in being able to make the trip over Germany" it stated, and "Of almost an hour's duration, the attack ruined
about half of the munitions-making city" says the report. He had been posted in to 61 Squadron on 11th September 1942 from 44 CU, which was 44 Squadron's conversion training unit and it seems likely that he had served 44 Squadron
for a period.
The only peice of aircraft found on my first trip to Hagg House Moor and possibly not from the Lancaster at all! This peice was some four feet long and
could not have been wind-blown. Parts of the nearby Wellington are known to
have been scattered and carried far and wide to patch up stone walls, this peice could well have been dropped en route to such a wall. As of July 2007 this peice had gone.
The general area of where the Lancaster is now known to have crashed on Crookstaff Hill.
Only tiny fragments remain at the crash site, as of October 2009.
Lawrence Hamblett was born in Brighton in 1920 and when he enlisted in Hove in 1940 he was working as an auctioneers clerk. The Citation for his DFM reads
"Sgt Hamblett who is now an air gunner, has completed a successful round of operational duty against targets in Germany, France and Italy. In spite of being
involved in two serious crashes, one of which three members of his crew were killed, Sergeant Hamblett has remained undaunted in the face of enemy opposition.
His efficiency has always been of the greatest possible assistance to his navigator and captain."
Only five days after this accident on the North Yorkshire Moors he was married. As his DFM states, he was involved in a second accident, the details of this are yet to be learnt by this writer.
As a W/O he was discharged from the RAF in 1945 through ill-health, whether this was down to injuries in this second accident a third accident is not known.
He returned home to Hove. He died in 1996. Another airman with the same initial, one L Hamblet (NCO 869374) was Commissioned in September 1943, I had initially believed that he was the
airman in question involved in this accident
on the Moors but this airman retired from the RAF in 1959, well after the correct one had left active service and can now be discounted.
Nothing more is known about Ernest Hawkins, his NCO Service number may have been 1315038 but has yet to be proved.
On 9th July 1943 Lancaster ED360 crashed in Cambridgeshire, this was a 106 Squadron aircraft based at Syerston. There were two survivors,
one was a flight engineer Sgt F Scattergood RAF, although
a longshot could the H Scattergood and F Scattergood be the same man? In 2009 I was contacted by Harry Scattergood's nephew Mr Jeff Davies who was able to give some extra details.
He survived the War and continued his service into the 1950s and flew in Vulcan bombers in Bahrain and received an BEM in the post-war period. He later returned home to Manchester
and worked at Manchester University.
Henry Game (and the main part of this crew) were posted in to 61 Sqduadron on 10th September 1942, prior to this accident he had flown two Dickie Ops with more experienced pilots and he and his crew
had flown one operational flight to Osnabruck on 6th October 1942. He was probably born in West Ham, London in 1915. He had a total of 225 hours flying to his name,
38 hours of which were at night and 20 of those being on this type of Lancaster.
John Skinn, Will Lund (no relation) and myself searched for the Lancaster crash site in October 2002 and then in January 2003, we covered a large area
of the Hagg House Moor finding only one peice of what was assumed to be aircraft. This peice must be some way from the site
of where the plane burnt out as we failed to locate where it must have come to a rest. It later became clear that the aircraft had not actually crashed
on Hagg House Moor having purchased a death certificate of one of the fatalities which gave a map reference for the crash site.
Edmund T Lund RAFVR later recovered from his injuries. He was made an emergency P/O on probation on 23rd July 1943 from being F/Sgt. He rose to F/O
and was posted to 7 Squadron probably after completing a Tour with 61 Squadron. He was sadly killed on 20th May 1944 when Lancaster ND736
was hit by light flak and exploded over Calais. He was 29 years old and is buried at Pas-de-Calais, France. A memorial window has been placed in his hometown parish church at St John's in Nelson, Lancashire
on which his name appears.
Lawrence Hamblett and Ernest Hawkins were awarded DFM's which were Gazetted on 17th August 1943, and were awarded for them both completing a Tour of Duty. Both airmen are believed to have survived the War.
There had been a suggestion that an airman, one Harry Gopsil Scattergood (172780) was awarded a DFM on 28th February 1941. Looking up this man in
the London Gazette and this service number appears to have been an seaman's and thus probably not our man?!