On 26th January 1941 the pilot of this No.54 Operational Training Unit aircraft was undertaking a night training flight around the general area of Church Fenton, having taken off the weather became poor and he lost sight of the airfield lighting. Because of poor weather the pilot then became lost. He was reported to have taken off without establishing any radio contact but the radio equipment would appear to have been working as he had requested searchlight "homing beams" be shone from search lights to aid him locate his position. The aircraft had probably flown well away from the Church Fenton area by this time and at 04.50hrs the aircraft flew into high ground near Masham. The pilot was stated to have been attempting to get below cloud at the time believing he was over water. He may have seen water below him just before the crash had he overflown one of the reservoirs in the area. The pilot was very lucky and he survived, a rarity for high ground crash sites of this nature.
Pilot - P/O Robert Merton Graham RAF (60526). Injured.
Robert Graham was the son of Captain Hugh Merton Graham MC and Helen Sarolta Podmaniezky, he was born in Budapast, Hungary in 1921. He received a commission in the RAF as P/O on probation on 2nd December 1940 (with seniority of 19th November 1940) from the rank of LAC. He rose to F/O (war subs) exactly as year later with the same back dated seniority. Having completed his training he was later posted to 255 Squadron around May 1942 operating night-fighter Beaufighters in the UK and later on Malta. He rose F/Lt (war subs) on 2nd December 1942 (with seniority of 19th November 1942) and later to Acting S/Ldr. On the night of 10th / 11th September 1943 he and P/O George Pugh Smith RAFVR (158140) who was his regular navigator / radar operator at the time were lost off Licosa Pint, Italy while flying a Beaufighter MkVIf on an operational flight. His body was never found and he is commemorated on the Malta Memorial. The previous night both men had been credited with shooting down a Heinkel HeIII and with damaging a Junkers Ju88. The CWGC database states that he was married to a lady from Leeds, Yorkshire but I have been unable to find further details of this marriage. He is commemorated on the Roll on Honour at the King Edward VII School, Johannesburg. My thanks to Mr Clark for additional information relating to the pilot. I thank his niece Bridget Robinson for kindly contacting me in April 2016 and supplying the photographs shown above and below. In the 255 Squadron group photograph shown below he is fifth from right on the front row.
His father Hugh Merton Graham RNVR was awarded the Military Cross for service in the First World War in Gallipoli after transferring to the Army for "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He carried out a daring reconnaissance of the enemy's front line, and obtained most valuable information." His father's life is well documented on the internet through the efforts of members of his family. He and his family later moved to South Africa and bought a farm.
I first visited the area of this incident in February 2006, the larger pieces of wreckage had been collected together and dumped in a series of depressions on the moor. I returned to re-photograph these a couple of years later. In July 2013 I returned to do the same again on a sunny day but accessed it from a different direction and found more of a wreckage trail away from these collected areas.
These fragments were found in 2013 some distance from the main collections of wreckage and they seem too large to have been wind-blown or carried by sheep wool over the years so are probably there-abouts in situ from 1941. The photograph above shows a rocker cover from a Bristol Mercury engine, this type of engine powered this variant of Blenheim.
These two pieces were found about five metres apart but when offered up to each other they were once one section of metal. The part number shown below was found on this part.
Blenheim K7076 was built to contract 43506/35 by The Bristol Aeroplane Company Ltd. at Filton and was delivered to 144 (Bomber) Squadron at Hemswell on 27th July 1937. On 9th April 1938 it moved with the unit to North Coates, then on 7th May 1938 it moved with the unit to Hemswell. On 20th april 1939 it was transferred to 5 MU at Kemble for conversion to a Mk.If status and then it was placed into storage. On 14th November 1939 it was taken on charge by 145 (Fighter) Squadron at Croydon. 145 Squadron began re-equipping with Hurricane's in April 1940 and on 16th April 1940 the aircraft was transferred to 5 OTU at Aston Down. On 13th May 1940 it sustained Cat.M/FA when it was belly-landed at Aston Down. It was repaired on site and returned to unit, on 1st November 1940 the unit was re-designated 55 OTU and all Blenheim's transferred to 54 OTU and it was delivered to its new unit at Church Fenton on 10th December 1940. On 26th January 1941 it sustained Cat.E2/FA damage as a result of the accident recorded above.