The East Kirkby Lancaster "Just Jane".
Lancaster NF961 flew into high ground in the early hours of the 18th of October 1944 after the pilot lost control while flying in cloud whilst on
night cross-country training flight. The explosion was said to be massive, a local farmer thought that the aircraft must have been carrying a bomb
load which all blew up on impact. This explosion made a huge crater and scattered wreckage over a wide area. The tail wheel was found near
the bottom of the hill by a farmer, I have also been told that the rear turret was also blown off and was found at the bottom of the hill
in a hedge. The seven crew were killed instantly in the crash.
The RAF "cleared", but more likely half-buried, the wreckage at the site at the time by simply pushing the majority of
the large peices of wreckage into the crater which later became grown over. A good few years later, young boys were exploring the moor, they
discovered the wreckage-filled crater and
began routing about in it. They discovered alot of un-spent .303 bullets which they took away to show friends at school. A
near perfect Merlin engine was found at the bottom of the crater with only a hole in the rocker cover. Word eventually got out that these
boys had found live ammo at the site, the local police man informed the RAF and they removed everything from the crater and filled the hole
in. A propeller blade from this aircraft was also found by these children but was too heavy for them to carry far, it was abandoned in a hedge
somewhere near Swainby.
Lancaster NF961 was built to contract ACFT/239 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd at Baginton and delivered directly to 630 Squadron in September 1944.
It was written off with Cat.E2/FA Burnt damage in the above incident. The loss gets a brief mention in Leeming's ORB which states:
"02.30hrs. Halifax crashed into hill at Osmotherley. All killed." There appears to have been problems in identifying the aircraft type.
Pilot - F/O Dennis A Brammer RAFVR (151568), aged 24, of Clayton. Buried Stone, Staffordshire.
F Eng - Sgt Leonard G Cook RAFVR (1813397), aged 20, of Paddington. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Nav / Bomber - W/O Gerald J Davis RAF (515502), aged 34, of Sunderland, County Durham. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Nav / Bomber - Sgt William A White RAFVR (1600618), aged 21, of Enfield, Middlesex. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
WOp/AG - Sgt Dennis G Holyoak RAFVR (1218832), aged 21, of Birmingham. Buried Birmingham Yardley Cemetery.
Air Gunner - Sgt John C Fitzpatrick RAFVR (1575467), aged 20, of Doveridge, Derbyshire. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Air Gunner - Sgt Clifford J Evans RAFVR (1312674), aged 35, of Bridgend. Buried Bridgend, Wales.
P/O Brammer's gravestone at Stone Churchyard and four others at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery. He was granted a commission in the RAF as P/O on probation (emergency)
on 19th March 1943 and rose to F/O on probation on 19th September 1943.
John and myself first visited the site in March 2003, only a little wreckage remains at the site now. The majority of it is in a
small area but a little more was found some way up the hill but as already stated much of what did remain, which where fairly substantial remains,
were cleared away in the 1970s by the RAF after local children appeared in school with live ammo from the site.
I revisited the site in September 2003. I located a couple more interesting items, firstly one of the aircraft's fuel gauge dials
which is in suprisingly good condition and secondly a half crown coin dated from before the crash. It is more than likely to have
come from a pocket of one of the aircrew who perished in the crash.
The few remaining parts of Lancaster NF961 at the crash site in 2008.
My thanks to Mr Tony Hodge for recounting his memories of this incident, he lived in Swainby at the time and visited the crash at the time as a boy.