On the night of 4th / 5th May 1943 the crew of 10 Squadron Halifax JD105 undertook an operational flight to bomb Dortmund and had set out from their base of Melbourne airfield at 22.33hrs. This raid on Dortmund saw 596 Allied aircraft attack the city but was not a complete success due to decoy fires attracting many of the bombs to be dropped in open country, the Allied Path Finding aircraft had also not accurately marked the target area but despite this severe damage was still reported to the city. This was the largest non-thousand bomber raid of the War to-date and the first attack on Dortmund. On board Halifax JD105 for this flight was a trainee pilot who was flying with the 10 Squadron crew for operational experience before he and his own crew joined an operational squadron, he was training with 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit at the time. The crew of JD105 released their bomb load over the red / green target markers from 17,500 feet at 01.05hrs, they reported that the weather over the target area was good and also that heavy and accurate flak was encountered. The aircraft was not damaged by flak and made for home but after leaving the target area the navigator complained that he was feeling ill so the captain reduced the height at which the aircraft was flying to try and help the navigator. His oxygen system may not have been operating as it should and he became severely airsick. As well as a sick navigator the aircraft's GEE and other equipment was not working properly. They made landfall at Acklington and while initially attempting to get back to Melbourne they flew down the coast to Filey but found themselves near Linton on Ouse airfield. Linton then ordered they divert to land at Leeming airfield. This aircraft appears to have been the only 10 Squadron aircraft to be diverted away from Melbourne to land on this night. I suspect that they were only diverted to Leeming because they failed to locate Melbourne and Linton on Ouse could not land them. This would have been different to there being an issue at Melbourne that saw them divert the crew away. It was nearly an hour behind the other aircraft by the time it arrived over Yorkshire and most other 10 Squadron aircraft had landed by 04.00hrs. Having been diverted north, away from Linton on Ouse the crew later stated that they decided to fly at 1500 feet. At 04.43hrs and while flying through fog towards Leeming the aircraft clipped a tree on the top Hood Hill near Kilburn on 5th May 1943. The aircraft then crashed, slid down the hillside for about 150 yards and broke up. The engines and cockpit area travelled a further distance down the hillside, with one engine ending up in a field at the bottom of the hill and with fires breaking out across the crash site. Five of the crew of eight were killed in the crash and three survived, one of these survivors was found laying in bluebells and when rescue eventually came. The survivors are all thought to have all recovered to some degree.
During my early research into this incident I found an uncredited reference stating this aircraft had also suffered engine trouble prior to the crash but I cannot recall where I obtained this information. Information within the casualty file for the incident confirms that this was not correct and that all four engines were running at the time of the incident. At the time of the crash there was an RAF air gunnery training range in the Hood Hill area and many references to this accident quote the crash location as being at Hood Range; which was the name of the firing range. I understand that the air gunners fired from level positions in fields along side the road on Sutton Bank and fired towards targets in the woodland across the valley south.
Halifax JD105 was built to contract ACFT/1808/C4 by English Electric Company Ltd at Samlesbury and was delivered directly to 10 Squadron at Melbourne on 21st April 1943. It was written off twelve days later on 5th May 1943, with the damage assessment of Cat.E2/FB Burnt damage being recorded as a result of the crash at Hood Hill . It took some days for the paperwork to catch up as it was not struck off charge until 16th May 1943.
Killed were:
Second Pilot - Sgt Eric Bertram Hill RAFVR (1334006), aged 26, of Southall. Buried Havelock Churchyard, Middlesex.
Navigator - Sgt Thomas Cox RAFVR (1575418), aged 23, of Solihull, Birmingham. Buried Elmdon Churchyard, Solihull, Warwickshire.
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Hubert Stanley Taylor RAFVR (1334645), aged 22, of Winton, Bournemouth, Dorset. Buried Talbot Village Churchyard, Dorset.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Herbert Henry Way RAFVR (1295368), aged 22, of Brantham, Suffolk. Buried Brantham Churchyard, Suffolk.
Mid Upper Gunner - Sgt George Frederick Ward RAFVR (1641825), aged 19, of Stowmarket, Suffolk. Buried Onehouse Churchyard, Suffolk.
Injured were:
Pilot - F/Sgt Roy Hamilton Geddes RAAF (401939), of Merbein, Victoria, Australia. Injured.
Flight Engineer - Sgt William Alexander Dunbar RAF (614225), of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Injured.
Rear Gunner - Sgt Kenneth Hart RAFVR (1432995), of Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Injured.
Thomas Cox's gravestone in the churchyard of St.Nicholas' within Elmdon Park, Solihull. The park now lies next to the huge Jaguar Land Rover factory. He was born on 24th October 1909 and was the son of Thomas Benjamin and Florence Elizabeth Cox. He enlisted for RAF service on 18th June 1941. He was married to Anne Cox, of Sheldon, Birmingham.
Eric Hill was born on 6th November 1916 and was the son of Bertram and Grace Hill. He married Vera Florence McKenzie in Autumn 1939. He enlisted for RAF service on 24th February 1941. In April 1942 he made a border crossing from Canada to the USA. He was coming to the end of his training with No.1658 Heavy Conversion Unit at the time of his death on Hood Hill but was flying with this 10 Squadron crew for operational experience prior to beginning operational flying with his own crew.
Hubert Taylor was born on 18th March 1921 at Bournemouth and was the son of Gerald and Winifred Mary Taylor. As a young man he was part of the 5th Company Boys Brigade. He enlisted for RAF service on 3rd March 1941.
Herbert Way was born on 15th January 1921 at Manningtree, Suffolk and was the son of Albert and Ethel May Way. He enlisted for RAF service on 25th November 1940.
George Ward was born on 14th October 1923 at Stanton, Suffolk and was the son of Walter and Mary Louisa Ward. He enlisted for RAF service on 19th September 1942. His grave has been attended to by members of his local ATC group since his burial. I thank Mr.M.Barrett for supplying the photograph of his grave.
Roy Geddes was born on 23rd October 1920 to Hugh Stewart and Margaret Daisy Inglis Geddes, at Parkes, New South Wales, Australia. His father Hugh Geddes may well have been awarded the Military Medal for service in WW1. Roy Geddes later studied at Melbourne University where he served in the Melbourne University Rifles from 1939 until 1941 but left this auxiliary unit when he enlisted for RAAF service. He enlisted into the RAAF on 26th April 1941 in Melbourne and was still a student at university at the time living in Merbein, Victoria. He left Australia in September 1941 and trained in South Africa gaining his Wings there on 23rd March 1942. On arrival in the UK he trained at 15 (P)A.F.U. beginning 4th September 1942, 20 O.T.U. beginning 6th October 1942 and 1658 H.C.U. beginning 18th January 1943. He was posted to 10 Squadron on 1st March 1943 with many of those flying with him in JD105 in May 1943. As a result of the injuries sustained in the crash on Hood Hill in May 1943 he spent time recovering at Pocklington before being passed fit and returning to 10 Squadron on 6th June 1943. He received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 24th June 1943. Sadly on 29th June 1943 he and all but one of his new crew were killed when Halifax HR697 crashed in Holland on an operational flight to Cologne. This was Roy Geddes' first operational flight since returning to his squadron from hospitalisation. The aircraft was shot down by an enemy aircraft and crashed near Kaborg, Maastricht with only one of the crew surviving. P/O Geddes was initially buried locally at Venlo Cemetery, Holland but after the War many of the aircrew buried across the country were re-interred in Jonkerbos War Cemetery, Nijmegen, Holland. The two photographs above show the original wooden cross grave marker and the modern white stone now marking his grave. He is commemorated on a wall memorial in Merbein.
William Dunbar was born 22nd September 1918 at Calgary, Alberta, Canada but little else is known about his early life. He enlisted for RAF service on 17th June 1938. He only appears to have sustained a broken bone in his left foot as a result of the crash of Halifax JD105. He recovered from the injuries and returned to operational flying with 10 Squadron. By 14th January 1944 he had completed 25 operational flights and on this date was recommended for the DFM, the recommendation for his DFM has been located by Hugh Halliday and mentions the accident on Hood Hill (though incorrectly spelt as Wood (sic:Hood) Range), it reads.. "Flight Sergeant Dunbar was posted to 10 Squadron in March 1943, and has now completed 25 sorties comprising 161 operational hours. He was the Flight Engineer in a Halifax aircraft detailed to attack Dortmund on the night of 5th May 1943. Whilst over the target, the aircraft was subjected to a heavy barrage of very accurate flak operating with numerous searchlights. Shortly after crossing the English coast, they were diverted to Leeming owing to very bad weather and the aircraft struck high ground at Wood Range. All the crew with the exception of the Captain and tail gunner and Flight Sergeant Dunbar were killed. During a further sortie to Dusseldorf on the night of 3rd November 1943, the aircraft in which he was flying was attacked by a Junkers 88. The port outer engine was hit and caught fire, a propeller damaged and broken and two tanks were holed during this encounter. The Captain made a perfect three-engined landing on return to base. Flight Sergeant Dunbar, despite these attacks, has continued to operate with undiminished ardour and enthusiasm and has earned the admiration of all Flight Engineers who work with him." Unfortunately before this recommendation was carried through he was to be killed on 21st January 1944 flying Ops to Madgeburg in Halifax HX165. The aircraft crashed at Schoningen, Germany with the loss of the whole of his then crew. He is now buried at Hanover War Cemetery. The award of the DFM for service with 10 Squadron was eventually promulated on 1st June 1945. It is thought that he attended the Western Canada High School prior to enlisting for RAF service.
Kenneth Hart was born on 20th April 1923 at Rotherham, South Yorkshire and was the son of John H and Eva (nee Hanson). He enlisted for RAF service on 7th May 1941.
Hood Hill as seen from Sutton Bank (above in 1937 and below in 2012). As can be seen the, Hood Hill partly wooded in 1937 but is now fully covered in pine trees, small fragments of the aircraft still remain but the site is hard to locate owing to the trees.
A rock carved with a memorial cross close to the crash site forms a memorial for the crew (left photograph Mr Eric Barton, taken in the mid-1990s). The carving was done by Mr David Morris of Thirsk (despite the year date being incorrect it formed a worthy memorial none the less). The right side photograph shows the location as it was in February 2007.
In addition to the carved memorial at the crash site another more modern memorial was erected beside the footpath from Sutton Bank visitors centre and the White Horse, this was also sited and dedicated through the efforts of Mr David Morris, with agreement from the NYM National Park Authority. Not only is it in memory of those who died in this crash but for the pilot of the Sabre which would crash a few hundred metres from the Halifax in the 1950s. The memorial over looks both crash sites. My thanks to (the now late) Mr Fred Banks of Oldstead Grange for recounting his memories of this incident and others in the area, he visited this crash site as a boy in 1943. Thanks also to Mr Eric Barton for allowing his photograph of the memorial dedication to be used in this documentation and to Mr David Morris for his input in recording this incident.
I first visited the site in November 2004 and have since returned several times. The general area of the crash site appeared to be in an area marked for the forestry to be cleared in 2009 but this, to date in 2019, has not yet happened. One hopes this will not damage the site but this seems unlikely.
Small fragments of the aircraft grouped together.
A fuse service kit.
If the creator of the webpage on "Komoot" that details this incident wishes to credit where they copied their text from that would be great, perhaps also correct my spelling mistakes next time.