On 21st December 1943 the pilot of this aircraft had been cleared to fly a night-time Army co-operation flight in the Chester area.
577 Squadron were involved with such activities
and had a number of locations where sections of the Squadron were stationed; Wrexham had at least three Oxford aircraft for such flights by 577 Squadron.
On this date the pilot left base at Wrexham with a wireless operator with him at 17.10hrs, it was the pilots first such
solo flight having only joined the Unit days previously.
During the co-operation they flew into bad weather and became lost and nothing more was heard from them until they were in the Topcliffe area of Yorkshire, by now some hundred miles off course.
They had tried to
gain permission to land at Topcliffe but this was refused as the airfield was blocked by a
"major obstruction"; unknown to them a Lancaster had crashed on landing and had struck a Halifax killing three.
The oxford flew on and some time
later it crashed in the Hawnby / Murton area on the western side of the North Yorkshire Moors at around 22.15hrs. The aircraft caught fire on impact with the
pilot being knocked unconscious by the impact which had also
trapped his legs between his seat and the instrument panel. The wireless operator was stunned in the crash but he soon came round and
was able to rescue the pilot and carry him away from the burning aircraft. The wireless operator then returned to the burning aircraft
to remove both
parachutes (whilst there is no full explanation for this, one assumes at the time of year and crashing on high ground the weather
would have been very cold, if not snow covered, perhaps the parachutes would have helped them stay warm should the need arise).
Soon after returning from the aircraft the wireless operator collapsed through shock. The aircraft was destroyed by the fire. One unrecorded source states that this
aircraft crashed after "flying into a box valley in bad weather", this could well be true as the area is technically covered in such valleys.
There is a suggestion that the aircraft was almost out of fuel at the time of the crash.
Both men would eventually be located and
taken to Northallerton's Friarage Hospital where they would make recoveries, both were very lucky men. The pilot was released from
hospital and returned to his Unit on 29th December, the wireless operator was still being detained on this date.
The crash investigation blamed a number of factors for the crash; the bad weather was not forcast accurately. The pilot and the
wireless operator were not cleared of blame though. The pilot, it was reccommended, should have more night flying experience.
He had only done eleven hours total night flying at the time of the crash. The wireless operator should have contacted base when they became lost
it was reported. The ORB for the unit gives some interesting information regarding the incident. It states the crew had sighted an aircraft
beacon and carried out the correct procedure for obtaining assistance but had received no reply from the ground - whether this relates to RAF
Topcliffe or not is not known. The next morning 577 Squadron sent F/O Busfield to "Skipton, Yorks" as an investigating officer
into the accident, (probably refering Skipton on Swale airfield, with Topcliffe being blamed this base was probably not used to house the investigating officer).
Brian Rapier's "Warplanes Return" book stated that an "unknown" aircraft crashed into a quarry in this same area, this could this be the same aircraft.
Oxford P9041 was built to contract 777546/38 by Airspeed Ltd at Portsmouth and delivered directly to 54 OTU at Church Fenton on 22nd
December 1940. It transferred to 15 SFTS at Kidlington on 24th February 1941 and moved onto 2 (P)AFU at Brize Norton on 7th April 1942
and remained with them until the unit disbanded on 13th July 1942. After a very short spell in storage the aircraft was issued to 1 GTS
at Croughton on 5th August 1942 where it remained until transferred to RAFC Cranwell on 14th February 1943. It was placed in MU storage
on 26th March 1943 and remained there until being issued to 6 AACU at Castle Bromwich on 10th October 1943. On 1st December 1943 577 Squadron
was formed at Castle Bromwich from flights from 6, 7 & 8 AACU's. It was written off in the incident detailed above with Cat.E2/FA damaged recorded and was
struck off charge some days later on 31st January 1944.
Pilot - Sgt Tadeusz Mioduchowski PAF (P/794371) - Injured.
Wireless Operator - F/Sgt L Read/Reed RAF - Injured.
Warrent Officer Mioduchowski was posted in to 301 Squadron, based at Brindisi from 56 PTS in the Uk on 28th February 1945.
The photograph above is said to show one Tadeusz Mioduchowski (on the left) and taken later in the War in North Africa. Left to right:
F/Lt Mioduchowski, F/Lt Helwig and F/Lt Korpowski, all were DFC holders and all had completed Tours with 301 Squadron). There was more than one airman with the surname
Mioduchowski at 301 Squadron in North Africa. The photograph of this airman may not be the same man as involved in the incident on the Moors but is included here to try
and discover more about him. There was a F/Lt Jan Mioduchowski (P/0771) who served with 301 Squadron in 1945 and a P/O S Mioduchowski in April 1942.
I visited the widely quoted area of the crash in May 2002, this location is in the middle of a corn field (shown above). I didn't want
to disturb
the crop so didnt explore the field but I know that other researchers have searched this map reference with metal detectors with permission from the land owner.
This is the location quoted in Yorkshire Air Museum records, which is in the same field as Lancaster DS737 which crashed only days previously.
Refering to a police report though this suggests the site is infact some 500 yards away from the YAM location and as the aircraft burnt out I
would suggest that something should remain at the site. This YAM location is therefore possibly incorrect.
The "box valley" quote and the "quarry" reference are of interest if this is the case, because the YAM location is not near the head of valley but on the
summit ridge. The correct location could well be about half a mile east and near some old quarry workings and nearer the head of a valley (shown below).
Sgt Mioduchowski arrived at 577 Squadron at Wrexham on 3rd December 1943 along with two other Poles Sgt's Pruski and Plucinski. The weather
during the month prior to the date of the Murton incident is recorded in the unit ORB as being poor, with little flying training of the new pilots being
done because of foggy conditions. Mioduchowski appears to have had his first night-flight with the unit on 13th December in a dual flying exercise. The weather
was too bad to be able to fly a co-operation flight for the Army though. His next flight was a night flying co-operation flight with an
instructor. The following night of the 20th December (and the night prior to the incident near Hawnby) he flew a similar flight.
A F/Sgt Leo E Read RAFVR (1218563) was killed on 31st March 1944. He was also a F/Sgt and also a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner and
I would suggest the two are possibly the same man. Read and crew were killed when 622 Squadron Lancaster ED619 was shot down by a night-fighter
over Baumbach, they rest in Rheinberg War Cemetery. Read was from Erdington, Birmingham and was twenty one years old.
Proving the two men are one individual is difficult.
