Four P-47 Thunderbolts took off from Goxhill at 13.45hrs on 8th March 1943, they were to practice formating on each other. In the lead aircraft was Captain Leonard P. Marshall, Operations Officer with 82nd Fighter Squadron. All aircraft climbed and carried out local flying for an hour in broken overcast cloud. After this time, the leader descended to find that the visibility had gone from about three miles down to a quarter of a mile. Flt/Off Graff was flying at number two in the formation, he was not aware of where the airfield now was, he concentrated on his leader and not where he was flying. The aircraft's radio cut out so he had lost contact with his leader and base but it was believed that all the pilots had thought they were not as far north as they actually were. One of the aircraft made a landing at Catfoss after finding that airfield. The leader then worked out where they were and radioed Graff and the other aircraft to stay with him. As Graff's radio was not working he did not hear this and flew off on his own. The leader and the one remaining Thunderbolt landed back at base with 90 gallons of fuel still on board. Graff however was still flying in unfamiliar country, he eventually saw land after being over the sea for some time. He later stated in his report that the ground he was flying over was very hilly, he noticed four radio masts (which could well have been something to do with Danby Beacon), from here he flew east and came to what he called a city (more like Whitby). By this time he realised his fuel was running low and that he must try and find an airfield to land on. He circled the city (Whitby) three times before his engine began to splutter. Graff forcelanded, wheels-up in a field at the side of the Whitby to Scarborough road near Linglands Farm at 15.45hrs. The aircraft suffered serious damage due to the rough landing, damaged was caused to the propeller, undercarriage and wing tips but the pilot survived the landing. It was later found out that he had actually still got 65 gallons of fuel left in the tanks. The crash report makes no mention of actually where the aircraft was force landed, the map at the Yorkshire Air Museum makes note to a Thunderbolt landing in the area of Cloughton Moor and the same date and aircraft number. Police reports give a map reference and the same date for this crash as YAM quote so one can assume that this is the correct crash location for this exact aircraft.
Pilot - Flt Off Warren Elliott Graff USAAF (T.190479). Uninjured.
Warren Graff was born on 3rd September 1921 at Brooklyn, New York, USA but moved to Toronto, Canada at a young age. He was living at 101 Armadale Avenue, Toronto prior to enlisting for RCAF service in April 1941. He then transferred to the USAAF in December 1942. He had only had ten hours of flying time on this aircraft type when the crash occurred on the moors above Cloughton. This aircraft was new, it had just less than 32 hours use. On 3rd May 1943 Warren Graff crashed P-47 41-6220 at Duxford and again survived uninjured.
In the morning of 30th July 1943 he was the pilot of P-47c 41-6391 "MX-Y" and other aircraft of his unit (82nd FS, 78th FG, MACR 135) based at Duxford and was escorting B17's returning from an operational flight to Germany. By the time the formation of P47's joined the B17's the bombers were already being attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft. Graff and another pilot went after and shot down one enemy fighter but he was then attacked from above by a Bf109, his aircraft was hit in the starboard wing and engine and he put the aircraft into a dive to shake off his attackers. Pulling out of the dive he levelled out at around 1000 feet but the aircraft had been badly damaged, he baled out and landed safely in a field in the area around the France/Belgium border and saw his aircraft crash, on landing he put as much distance between him and the crashed aircraft as he could before hiding, after running about a mile and a half he hid in undergrowth on top of a hill over looking the valley in which the aircraft had crashed, he watched the Germans search for him but they did not check the area in which he had hidden. He waited until it was dark and then travelled at night and hid during the day for the next five nights when he ran out of supplies he had landed with. Being a French-speaker he opted to find someone he could possibly trust and watched a farmer working in fields, he later approached him and the farmer and his family later fed him and he slept in their house that night. He remained there for the next two days, where he was re-clothed and the farmer brought someone from the resistance to help him. He left the farm after another night and his passage from here on in was arranged for him firstly by bicycle and the car to a refuge for evaders Wicquinghem, in the Pas-de-Calais region of France to the home of the Mayor. He was later taken to Paris by train. He arrived back the UK on 24th October 1943 at Penzance. He was assisted to evade capture by a number of people, possibly including Madame Bizian, (a pseudonym for Ghislaine Niox) whp ran the safe house where he was able to stay for a time, this safe house was very successful during 1943 in getting over thirty Allied service personnel back to England.
An obituary located stated that he served in the USAF post-war, retiring as Major. He married and had several children. He then worked for OIG as a special agent, before volunteering with the Coast Guard. He died in Junction City, Ohio on 23rd March 2007.