This Beaufighter was an RAF aircraft on loan to the USAAF and was based at Scorton airfield near Catterick, Yorkshire.
The aircraft took off from Scorton on the 22nd of June 1943 for an evening exercise with three
airmen on board, the crash report states it was an air firing exercise. While the crew were
almost certainly making for base the aircraft encountered engine trouble whilst over the
Moors in the Commondale area. At 17.50hrs and having made a turn in from the North, the pilot tried to make a forced landing
in a field in Westerdale but crashed in doing so and the aircraft broke up. Parts were scattered across the
field, and both wings and the tail section broke away off the fuselage. The actual cockpit and fuselage sections
remains fairly intact with two of the airmen still being inside it but sadly these two were killed
in the crash. The other airman was thrown out of the aircraft and landed in the shallow river close by. He was
remarkably found by a Mrs Jane Smurthwaite
who was staying with her family at a nearby farm. She was first on the scene and
dragged the airman out of the river and onto the bank side and waited for help to arrive. The injured
airman was taken to Catterick Military Hospital for treatment where it is thought he survived. The aircrafts
dingy was thought to have inflated in the crash and found its way into the river not far from the airman.
The crash was later put down to the failure of one of the crew to select the correct fuel tanks and the fuel supply to the engine
stopped. 417 Squadron were soon posted to North Africa and thus left Yorkshire.
Beaufighter V8812 was built to contract B30264/39 by The Bristol Aeroplane Company Ltd at Filton and
delivered to the RAF in April 1943. After acceptance at MU it was issued on a 'reverse lend-lease' to 417
Night Fighter Squadron USAAF at Scorton in June 1943,
who had just arrived in the UK from Orlando, Florida, where they had completed their night figther training.
The aircaft was written off days later with Cat.E2/FA damage being recorded following the incident detailed above.
Pilot - Flt Off Frank McLain USAAF (T-000340), of Harding County, South Dakota, USA. Initially buried Brookwood Cemetery, London. Re-buried Cambridge Madingley Cemetery, Plot C Row 2 Grave 71.
Passanger? - Cpl Walter T Dyer Jr USAAF (38115782), of Montague County, Texas, USA. Initially buried Brookwood Cemetery, London, Re-buried Cambridge Madingley Cemetery, Plot D Row 1 Grave 58.
Navigator - Flt Off Hendershot USAAF, injured, taken to Catterick Military Hospital.
The aircraft crashed into the fields shown on this photograph. This is a completely different incident to T5299 which occured earlier in the year also in Westerdale.
The Navigator's correct full identity is not known but it may have been Jonah G. Hendershot, born on 4th January 1922 in Bangor, Northampton County, Pennsylvania and
died on 7th February 1997 in Pen Argyl, Northampton County.