Four P-47 Thunderbolts took off from Goxhill at 13.45hrs on the 8th of March 1943, they were to practice formating on each other. In the lead aircraft was Capt. Leonard P Marshall, Operations Officer with 82 Fighter Squadron. All aircraft climbed and carried out local flying for an hour in broken ovecast cloud. After this time, the leader descended to find that the visiblity had gone from about three miles to a quarter of a mile. Flt Off Graff was flying at number two, he was not aware of where the airfield now was, he concentrated on his leader and not where he was flying. The aircrafts radio cut out so he had lost contact with his leader and base. From what I can tell by reading the crash report, all the aircraft 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 do 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 unfamilar country, he eventually saw land after being over the sea for some time. He stated the ground was very hilly, he noticed 4 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 the he must try and find an airfield to land on. He circled Whitby three times before his engine began to splutter. Graff force landed, wheels-up in a field at the side of the Whitby to Scarborough road near Linglands Farm at 15.45 hrs. The aircraft suffered serious damage due to the rough landing, damaged was caused to the prop, undercarriage and wing tips. 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 grid ref 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 E Graff USAAF (T.190479), uninjured.

Warren Graff USAAF had only had 10 hours of flying time on this aircraft type when the crash occured above Cloughton. This aircraft was new, it had just less than 32 hours use. On the 3rd May 1943 he crashed P-47 41-6220 at Duxford and again survived. From internet searches for information on this pilot it seems likely that he was of Canadian origin and could speak French. On 30th July 1943 he was shot down over France whilst flying P-47c 41-6391 MX-Y (of 82nd FS, 78th FG, MACR 135) and managed to evade capture and return to the UK with the help of a French family in the French town of Brest in October 1943. Madame Bizian, (a pseudonym for Ghislaine Niox) ran the safe house where he was able to stay The family ran a safe house and were very successful during 1943 in getting over thirty Allied service personnel back to England.

I have used the USAAF crash report in compiling this webpage, thanks to Mr Mike Stowe for supplying this copy. Without wishing to blow my own trumpet I appear the first to have linked this aircraft to this known crash site in recent history.