This Beaufighter was an RAF aircraft on loan to the USAAF and was based at Scorton airfield near Catterick, Yorkshire. It was used by 417 Night Fighter Squadron and the crew of three took off from Scorton on 22nd June 1943 for an evening training flight. The accident report states the crew were to undertake an air firing exercise. While the crew were probably trying to return to their base the aircraft encountered engine trouble 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 the Castleton area but crashed while doing so and the aircraft broke up. Parts were scattered across the field at Dibble Bridge. Both wings and the tail section broke away but the actual cockpit and fuselage section remained fairly intact with two of the airmen being found inside it though sadly were killed in the crash. The other airman was thrown out of the aircraft and landed in the shallow river close by. Remarkably he was found by a Mrs Jane Smurthwaite who was staying with her family at a nearby farm. She was first on the scene so dragged the airman out of the river 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 aircraft's dinghy was thought to have inflated in the crash and found its way into the river not far from the airman. The engine failure 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 when the selected tank ran dry. 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 was delivered to 30 MU at Sealand on 10th March 1943. It was then transferred to 29 MU at High Ercall on 23rd March 1943. After acceptance at MU it was issued on a 'reverse lend-lease' agreement to 417 Night Fighter Squadron USAAF at Scorton on 16th June 1943. 417 Squadron had just arrived in the UK from Orlando, Florida where their aircrew had completed their night fighter training. It crashed near Castleton on 22nd June 1943. Cat.E2/FA damage was the damage assessment and it was struck off charge. This incident resulted in 417 Squadron's first fatalities.

Pilot - Flt Off Frank McLain USAAF (T-000340), of Harding County, South Dakota, USA. Initially buried Brookwood Cemetery, London. Re-buried Cambridge Madingley Cemetery (C/2/71).

Passanger / Mechanic - Cpl Walter Tecumseh Dyer Jr USAAF (38115782), of Montague County, Texas, USA. Initially buried Brookwood Cemetery, London. Re-buried Cambridge Madingley Cemetery, (D/1/58).

Navigator / Radio Operator - Flt Off Joseph John Hendershott USAAF. Injured, taken to Catterick Military Hospital.

The aircraft crashed into the fields shown on this photograph.

Frank McLain and his grave at Madingley Cemetery, Cambridge (photographed by me). Frank enlisted for army service two days after Pearl Harbour on 9th December 1941. He initially served as an aircraft armourer in the USA before transferring for flying training and receiving his Wings on 4th January 1943. He joined 417 Squadron soon after and left for England on 4th May 1943. He left four sisters and five brothers with his eldest brother serving in the US Navy Air Corps.

Walter Dyer's grave at Madingley Cemetery, Cambridge (photographed by me). He was the son of Walter Tecumseh Dyer and Vida Virgina (nee Boone) Dyer and was born in 1920. He is also commemorated by a memorial stone in the Greenwood Memorial Park, Fort Worth, Texas, USA.

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