Aircraft accidents in Yorkshire.

Lancaster ED481 at Hawnby Hill.

The crew on this Lancaster took off at 23.50hrs from Waddington on 30th January 1943, 148 aircraft were to attack Hamburg, the crew bombed the target without incident and made for home. On their return they were diverted north and told to land at Leeming. It is thought that the crew became lost after flying in over the Yorkshire coast and after flying around for a period of time they begun to run out of fuel. With their height gradually decreasing and by the time they flew into high ground at the side of Hawnby Hill a crash would have been enevitable. Having flown south and towards the main escarpment which forms the southern side of the North Yorkshire Moors and known locally as Tabular Hills clearing this would have been impossible at the height they were flying. This escarpment begins at Black Hambleton (in the west) and heading east includes the Hawnby and Easterside hills, Newgate Bank, Cowhouse Bank, to name only afew and continues all the way to the coast. Flying directly at it and not really knowing it was there would have only resulted in a crash. ED481 struck birch trees near to Moorgate, a mile north of Hawnby village and all onboard were killed in the resulting crash at Hawnby Hill. A crash report mentions the aircraft had already suffered at least one engine failure prior to the crash, other people speak of three engines being feathered at the time of the crash probably due to lack of fuel. I learn from speaking to locals that the crew had known they were flying at too low a height and prior to the crash were throwing anything out of the aircraft to try and gain that extra bit of height. Backing this story up of things being thrown from the aircraft, a Browning machine gun was located by Brian Rapier some years ago and is photographed in his "White Rose Base" book. It was in a poor condition but a gun which appears to be the same one is currently held in the Air Gunner Room at the Yorkshire Air Museum. Propellor marks are said to be visible on the moor near Moorgate, I have yet to locate them. There is also a suggestion that Leeming ATC had re-diverted the crew south, possibly to Topcliffe, and it was during this leg that they crashed having flown into the hills. No official source to prove this theory has yet been found by myself but it could well be true. It may be of interest that this raid was the first to use H2S radar on the Pathfinder aircraft, however on this date the H2S was not effective.

Lancaster ED481 was built to contract B69274/40 by A.V. Roe Ltd in Manchester and delivered directly to 9 Squadron at Waddington on 15th January 1943. It was still a new aircraft and only two weeks old when it was written off in the incident detailed above. The Form Am78 states damage was only at Cat.B/FB, however this is a mistake, for Cat.E2/FB. It was struck off charge on 10th February 1943.

Pilot - W/O Frank G Nelson RCAF (R79092), aged 24, of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, USA. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.

FEng - Sgt McKeen Allan RCAF (R/64851), aged 33, of Northport, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Nav - Sgt George F Done RAFVR (1338385), aged 21, of Carmarthen, buried Northwich Cemetery, Cheshire. He gained a teachers diploma at Trinity College, Carmarthen before signing up.

Nav/Bomber - Sgt Alan A F Williams RAFVR (1391272), aged 26, of Whitstable, buried Seasalter, Kent. He was previously a member of the Metropolitan Police Force.

W Op/AG - Sgt Henry S Jones RAFVR (1192740), aged 21, of Sutton Coldfield, Warks, buried Sutton Coldfield.

Air Gunner - Sgt Arthur W Butcher RAFVR (1578256), aged 19, of Upper Tysoe, Warwickshire. Buried Tysoe, Warwickshire.

Rear Gunner - Sgt Walter G Murton RAFVR (778803), aged 21, of Capetown, South Africa. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Four of the crew's headstones.

The aircraft crashed into the foreground of the above photograph, on various visits to the site I located crater which has an amount of wreckage in it. An un-known person has continued doing some illegal digging at the site in the last few years and there is now pretty much no wreckage at the crash site.

The aircraft flew in from this direction and ended up in the foreground of the photograph.

My thanks to Mr J Weighell who visited this crash hours after it happened, he states that it flew straight into the side of the hill and did not strike ground before hitting here.