Aircraft accidents on the North Yorkshire Moors.

Halifax LW585 at Stoupe Brow, Ravenscar.

The evening of the 15th of Febuary 1944 saw 891 aircraft set out to bomb Berlin. This was to be the largest non-1000 bomber raid of the War, Berlin was covered in cloud for most of the night however extensive damage was caused throughout the city. The raid signified the end of the Battle of Berlin although another raid was carried out a number of weeks later.

This particular aircraft took off from Leconfield at 17.47hrs, all would appear to have gone well for the crew out bound and over the target. On their return flight poor weather was over the Yorkshire Coast and they drifted off course and ended up to the south of Whitby. Low on fuel, after making a number of radio calls and circling for a short while, at 01.30hrs the pilot put the aircraft down on moorland near the east coast village of Ravenscar. Before the aircraft could come to a stop however, it over ran over the edge of steep drop above Stoupe Brow Farm. It fell over the edge and disintergrated across the fields below sadly resulting in all seven on board being killed. Parts of the aircraft narrowly missed Stoupe Brow Farm with an engine coming to rest on the railway line beyond.

Halifax LW585 was built to contract ACFT/1808/C4/C by E.E.C. Ltd at Salmesbury and delivered directly to 640 Squadron on 4th February 1944. Cat.E2/FB damage was sustained on "15.2.44", this is an error in RAF records, it should be the following day.

Pilot - F/O Hugh A Y Barkley RAFVR (131052), aged 22, of Weybridge, Surrey. Buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

FEng - Sgt Alfred Elkington RAFVR (1166810), aged 33, of Leicester. Buried Leicester Saffron Hill Cemetery.

Nav - Sgt William N Jackson RAFVR (1577169), aged 22, of Bearwood, Smethwick. Buried Smethwick Uplands Cemetery, Staffordshire.

Bomb Aimer - F/O Alexander L Sommerville RCAF (J/23585), aged 22, of Ghost Pine Creek, Alberta, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

WOp/AG - F/Sgt James (Jock) H Smart RAFVR (984868), aged 22, of Dundee. Buried Dundee Balgay Cemetery.

Mid Upper Gunner - Sgt Derek M A Brown RAFVR (1867211), aged 19, of Dunstable. Buried Dunstable Cemetery, Bedfordshire.

Rear Gunner - Sgt Thomas G Leitch RAFVR (1090739), aged 22, of Lancaster. Buried Lancaster Scotforth Cemetery.

F/O Hugh Barkley (photo via Bill Norman) and his gravetone. Also shown on the right is the Memorial Board for St. Peters School, in Surrey. This school closed in the 1980s and the board is now on display in Seaford Museum (my thanks to Mr Kevin Gordon for this photograph and for the information he has been able to provide me). Hugh Barkley later studied at Cambridge University where he graduated as a Bacheolor of Arts. He was granted a commission to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) on 9th October 1942 and rose to F/O on probation (war subs.) on 9th April 1943.

Alexander Sommerville's grave in Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery.

I visited the area where the aircraft struck the moor in April 2003, I found no wreckage on this occasion. The fields at the back of the farmhouse are private and have livestock in them, I did not venture down here.

The aircraft crashed through the fields at the top of the cliff and then fell over the edge.

In September 2003 a massive moorland fire burnt off all the heather on this moor. In November 2003 John Skinn, Ben Wedgewood and myself visited the area again, searching the moor was then very easy, its resembled a moon scape. We found two peices on alloy on the moor and two peices of perspex at the moor's cliff edge. If there was anything else on the moor we would have found it, though there could well be small peices under the cliff where the Halifax broke up.

All members of this crew had served with 466 Squadron, and were posted in during August 1943. 466 Squadron converted to Halifaxs in October 1943 and all appear to have been posted out after this occured. On the 25th November 1943 F/O Barkley was the pilot of 466 Squadron Halifax HX237 which was taking off for a training flight from Leconfield, the aircraft swung on take-off and stopped with its undercarriage collapsed. Whilst no injuries were reported this aircraft was the first Halifax MkIII to be written off by Bomber Command. It had flown a total of 26.10 hours.

A full account of the accident to LW585 can be found in Bill Norman's book - "No.640 (Halifax) Squadron, RAF Leconfield" published by Compaid Graphics. The book shows a photograph of the crew and the crash site taken at the time.