Lancaster DS724 at Spaunton village.

On the night of 7th / 8th October 1943 this aircraft was one of 343 Lancasters en route to bomb Stuttgart, the aircraft had just taken off when the flying controls jammed. With some difficulty the pilot managed to climb the aircraft to 4000 feet where the crew abandoned it, it crashed soon after with a full bomb load on board close to Manor Farm, Spaunton at 21.08hrs, the belief is that on impact it exploded causing a massive blast and carrying a full bombload the explosion was heard for many miles, it is noted in a Scarborough's ARP war diary so one assumes it was heard at least twenty miles away. Sadly there was one fatality involved and it was caused to the farmer at Manor Farm, Mr George Strickland, who was about to come out of his house when he was killed when the blast blew the heavy farm door in on him. Although I have no proof the farmer may have heard the initial crash and explosion and then gone towards the door to see what had happened, in some cases the some of the bombs would exploded moments later and this may have been the case here. Upon speaking to local people they recall a number of other houses in Spaunton sustained damage, evacuees living in some of them had their homes wrecked and had lucky escapes. I understand that a local man was in bed at the time of the crash when the gable end wall of his house fell down in the blast, he was lucky to survive. Of the crew on board DS724 all but one of the crew landed safely within a few miles of the crash location, one of the crew had sustained slight injuries in a bad landing but recovered.

The post-crash investigation considered that severe icing on the surfaces of the aircraft were considered to have been a factor in the control of the aircraft having been lost. However the main theory for control being lost almost immediately after take-off was suggested to have been down to the aircraft's auto-pilot being accidently switched on prior to take-off and this went un-noticed. The Squadron had just converted to Lancasters in the weeks prior to this accident and though the pilot had a total of 331 hours flying time at the time of the crash, only 37 of his hours were on Lancasters. This flight was apparently the pilot's first Operational flight in a Lancaster, he may have knocked the lever in his pre-flight preparation or it was moved by ground crew accidentally. The pilot went on to be one of the best pilots 408 Squadron would have.

Brian Rapier reported in one of his 1970's-era books that the pilot landed in the back garden of his brother's house in Hutton-le-Hole, I have to research this myself, but if true this would suggest that the Harvey family had lived in the Ryedale area, and that some of the pilot's family had emmigrated to Canada. This needs further research. Others landed as far away as Pockley, near Helmsley.

Lancaster DS724 was built to contract AC239 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd at Baginton and delivered to MU storage in October 1942 and held there until being issued to 408 Squadron at Linton on Ouse in August 1943 when the unit converted from Halifaxes to the Lancaster B.II model. It was destroyed in the incident detailed above with Cat.E2/FB(Burnt) damage recorded.

Pilot - F/Sgt John Douglas Harvey RCAF, of Toronto, Canada. Uninjured. (Possibly known by his middlename).

Flight Engineer - Sgt H J Branton RAF (or RCAF?). Uninjured.

Navigator - Sgt Eric J Hurd RCAF, of Sawyerville, Quebec, Canada. Uninjured.

Bomb Aimer - F/O Stephen W Dempsey RCAF (J/21039), of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. Uninjured.

Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - P/O George E R Butchart RCAF. Uninjured. (Known as "Slick" or "Rae")

Mid Upper Gunner- Sgt Stanley E Campbell RCAF, of Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. Injured, broken arm.

Rear Gunner - Sgt K L Davison RCAF. Uninjured.

Civilian - Mr George Strickland, killed. Buried Lastingham Churchyard, Yorkshire.

This photograph appeared as the front cover of "The Ryedale Historian" No 13, 1986. I only have the front cover of this publication, I suspect that copyright might exist for this photo, and if it needs an official credit I would be happy to make it. Spaunton Manor is in the centre of the photograph.

Please note that this crash site is on private land and therefore I have not visited the site. The aircraft is thought to have crashed in the field just off the right side of this photograph and in an area now occupied by a healthy crop of stinging nettles.

The grave of Mr George Otterburn Strickland who was killed when the door of his house blew inwards. The family still run the farm. Mr Strickland was born on 23rd June 1890 and died on 7th October 1943.

John Harvey (pictured above) was born in Swansea, Ontario, Canada on 7th August 1942 where he lived prior to enlisting in Toronto on 7th November 1941. Following training in Canada and the UK he served with 408 Squadron. WO2 Harvey was still serving with 408 Squadron on 15/16th February 1944 when his aircraft was hit by flak whilst on Ops to Berlin, they were able to return home. He was later Commissioned in 1944. He was also awarded the DFC as P/O (J/85081), Gazetted on 19th May 1944, the citation reads..

"This officer has participated in very many sorties, involving attacks on most of the enemy's heavily defended targets. He has invariably displayed great skill and courage and his example in pressing home his attacks has been worthy of much praise. In the course of his tour, Pilot Officer Harvey has attacked Berlin on eleven occasions."

Having taken part in the highest number of Ops to Berlin for any pilot in 408 Squadron John Harvey was presented with a gold watch. He survived the War and returned home where he went to Toronto University. He later rejoined the RCAF before retiring in 1965 as W/C and was also the executive director of the RCAF Association and a founding editor of Airforce magazine. He died in Victoria on 16th January 1998. I would like to thank members of his family for their contact.

P/O Eric Hurd RCAF (C/18877) was also awarded the DFC with 408 Squadron on 24th May 1944. He was born in Sawyerville in 1920 but enlisted in London, England on 27th March 1942. He was commissioned in 1943 (one assumes later than the Spaunton incident in Oct 1943). there was no citation to his DFC as such other than "completed...many successful operations against the enemy in which [he has] displayed high skill, fortitude and devotion to duty."

The recommendation for this award also states that "Pilot Officer Hurd has nearly completed his first tour of operations. As a navigator he has been responsible for directing his aircraft on many occasions to very distant targets in enemy territory, including over eleven trips to Berlin. He has at all times displayed great keenness and devotion to duty." There is however a list of all the Ops he had taken part in upto the DFC. As a result almost certainly many of this crew flew these ops, they were...

24th July 1943, Hamburg.

25th July 1943, Essen.

27th July 1943, Hamburg.

29th July 1943, Hamburg.

30th July 1943, Remscheid

2nd August 1943, Hamburg, detailed below.

18th November 1943, Berlin, landed at Tangmere due to being short of fuel.

22nd November 1943, Berlin.

26th November 1943, Berlin.

2nd December 1943, Berlin.

16th December 1943, Berlin.

20th December 1943, Frankfurt.

29th December 1943, Berlin.

1st January 1944, Berlin.

5th January 1944, Stettin.

14th January 1944, Brunswick.

20th January 1944, Berlin.

21st January 1944, Magdeburg, landed at Waterbeach on return.

27th January 1944, Berlin, flying Lancaster DS692, attacked by an Me110. Sgt Campbell returned fire and shot it down, he was awarded a DFC for this (see below).

28th January 1944, (Berlin, returned early so did not count as an Op for their Tour).

30st January 1944, Berlin.

15th February 1944, Berlin, hit by flak.

19th February 1944, Leipzig.

24th February 1944, Schweinfurt, landed at Westcott on return.

15th March 1944, Stuttgart, the rear turret failed on return.

Here-after no complete list has been found as yet but...

30th March 1944, Nurnburg, jettisoned bomb load as no indicators were seen. Landed at Moreton in the Marsh on return.

The Hamburg raid they took part in on 2nd/3rd August 1943 deserves further investigation. What is known is that the raid was a failure because of severe icing and thunder storms before they released their bombs. This particular aircraft iced up. All aircraft were ordered to bomb from between 15,000ft and 20,000ft and with control being limited the pilot, F/Sgt Harvey, ordered the crew to bale out. The wireless operator, Sgt R Shire RCAF, complied and was eventually made a PoW. What happened next is yet not known but the aircraft began to loose height and the rest of the crew were probably unable to get out. In the process the pilot had sustained some injuries and was unable to continue flying the aircraft. Initially trapped in his turret the rear gunner, Stan Campbell, and found himself acting as a stand-in pilot. The aircraft had lost approaching 10,000ft in height before control was regained, Stan Campbell then acted as pilot and guided the aircraft home with the remaining crew on board. This information was found in Stan Campbell's obituary, and whilst slightly biased towards him, there is no doubt some truth to these events however had he single handedly regained control of a crippled bomber and flew it home saving the life of his injured pilot then surely he would be put up for an award of the highest honour; as he wasn't suggests had some part in the aircraft returning to the UK and the story was told in later years! He was nick-named "The Hamburg Kid" by his crew after this incident which does suggest some degree of truth to the matter.

Pretty much the whole of the crew named above are thought to have been involved in this incident. Having lost their wireless operator they were joined by F/O Butchart. Eric Hurd died in 1988, late of Mapleleaf, Compton Co, Quebec.

F/O Stephen Dempsey RCAF (J/21039) was also awarded the DFC, born in 1920 in Consecon; he enisted in Toronto on 4th August 1941. Following his training he was commissioned in 1942. After service with 408 Squadron he was posted to 419 Squadron and was awarded the DFC on 19th May 1944 (The same date as Harvey). The citation reads...

"As air bomber, this officer has completed a large number of sorties, including many against heavily defended and far distant targets. Throughout, he has displayed the greatest keenness and his example of courage and determination has been of a high order. He has proved himself to be a most valuable member of aircraft crew."

P/O Stanley Campbell RCAF (J/85691) was also awarded the DFC with 408 Squadron (effective from 16th June 1944). He was born in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada on 3rd April 1921 and enlisted in Calgary on 2nd April 1942. Following training he was posted to 408 Squadron. The citation for his DFC reads..

"As air gunner, this officer has taken part in very many attacks on a variety of well defended targets including eleven on Berlin. On one occasion in an operation against the German capital his aircraft was engaged by a fighter. Although the enemy attacked with much persistence, Pilot Officer Campbell directed the necessary combat manoeuvres with great skill. Finally Pilot Officer Campbell delivered a well placed burst of fire and the attacker dived towards the ground enveloped in flames. He defended his aircraft with great coolness and confidence, qualities which have made him a most valuable member of aircraft crew."

Stan Campbell returned to Ottawa in October 1944, why this was the case is not yet known but it could have been that his broken arm he sustained in the bad landing near Spaunton did not heal properly and he his War was cut short and he was able to return home because of this. He was discharged from the RCAF and was placed in the Reserve and returned to his native Drumheller and married Elizabeth on 18th February 1945. He worked for a large construction firm until retirement in 1988 before battling Parkinson's Disease for many years. He lost this fight in April 2002.

Thanks to Mr Hugh Halliday's research into RCAF Awards, much of this information on John Harvey, Stephen Dempsey, Stanley Campbell and Eric Hurd is taken.
One of the older members of this crew was Sgt H J Branton, after this incident Richard Koval's RCAF research reveals that he gave up his service as an airman, possibly ending the war as a member of ground crew.