On the evening of 4th October 1944 the crew of this 550 Squadron Lancaster took off from North Killingholme airfield at just after 19.30hrs to undertake a training flight. On this night 550 Squadron were not involved in operational flying so a number of their crews were tasked with flying a series of training flights. Across the squadron the flights would include fighter affiliatio, bombing practice, air to air firing, night-fighter affiliation, practice landings at Carnaby emergency landing ground and also "Y" training with a cross country flight involving practice bombing exercises. The precise route and detail of what the crew of Lancaster NF963 is not yet known, it could well have been involved in making practice landings at Carnaby earlier in the evening which could explain why it was over North Yorkshire. Later in the evening they were either undertaking or had undertaken "Y" training as part of the cross country training which the route of which put them over the general Masham / Leyburn area and as there was a practice bombing range at Snape (not far from Leyburn) it could well be that the exercise was to direct them to Snape to release practice bombs. By 23.00hrs all appears to have been going well, a common switch-over was made in the cockpit; the pilot handed over control of the aircraft to the flight engineer so that he could be given flying practice. This was infact more common than could be initially assumed today, it was done so that if the pilot was injured while on an operational flight another member of the crew could take over and at least aim the aircraft in the right direction for England. The events of what exactly happened next are not fully known. The flight engineer would have taken control of the aircraft with all four engines working, what appears to have then happened is that the pilot and flight engineer then reduced power on the starboard inner engine to simulate an engine failure. The engine appears to have then lost more power than was expected or failed. The flight engineer would not have known what to do in this situation and lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft then went into a steep diving turn. In trying to pull the aircraft out of what must have become a steep, fast and uncontrolled dive the stresses involved in the aircraft were too great and it became to break up in the air. Two of the engines broke away and other parts of the aircraft appear to have been torn away ending in the fuselage breaking. With the pilot being stood next to the flight engineer who was at the controls, he appears to have managed to grab a parachute, attach it and jump clear of the aircraft as it broke up but he must have been well below the minimum height required for the parachute to deploy properly when he left the aircraft. He landed very heavily and sustained serious back injuries. The mobile hospital team from the RAF Hospital at Northallerton attended the site and transported him back to Northallerton suffering from a fractured cervical vertebrae and other serious injuries. Normally pilots did not fly in Lancasters with parachutes attached and with them normally being in the pilot's seat they would be the last to leave. His crew were not so fortunate, all six were killed either by baling out too low or when the aircraft crashed into moorland at 23.05hrs near the village of Ellingstring. All who baled out were found in and around the crash site meaning that the aircraft was in a steep dive as they left the aircraft as had it been in any form of level flight they would have landed in a trail leading away from the eventual crash site.
In 2017 I have learnt of a possible witness to this incident, he was in the fire service at Leyburn at the time and claimed that he saw this aircraft on fire before it crashed at Ellingstring. In the accident documentation I have located there is no mention of a fire in the air. Furthermore the accident documents state that a fire occurred on the ground after the crash but not before. He is certain that he witnessed this aircraft flying reasonable level and on fire. The evidence does not agree and I would politely suggest he is mistaking this incident for another (possibly Halifax JP204 that crashed near Galphay two days earlier that was on fire before it crashed). The facts state that Lancaster NF963 broke up in a steep, fast dive after control have been lost and was not on fire prior to or during the break up.
Pilot - F/O Stanley Herbert Hayter RAFVR (146918). Injured.
Flight Engineer - Sgt Leon Asher Bassman RAFVR (1423298), aged 22, of Cardiff. Buried Cardiff Jewish Cemetery, Glamorganshire, Wales.
Navigator - F/O Thomas Yestyn Thomas RAFVR (154395), aged 22, of Garnant, Wales. Buried Garnant Chapelyard (Old Bethel), Carmarthenshire, Wales.
Bomb Aimer - F/O Robert Ranui Bradshaw RNZAF (4215727), aged 20, of Haumoana, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Arthur Joseph Pearce RAFVR (1816429), aged 20, of Madeley Heath. Buried Madeley Churchyard, Staffordshire.
Air Gunner - Sgt John Patrick Sheridan RAFVR (1826246), aged 19, of Glasgow. Buried Glasgow (St.Kentigern's) RC Cemetery.
Air Gunner - Sgt James McVey RAFVR (1825292), aged 26, of Airdrie. Buried New Monkland Cemetery, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Of those listed above Hayter, Bassman, Thomas, Bradshaw and Pearce arrived at 550 Squadron from one of the Heavy Conversion Units on 8th September 1944. They were posted in with two different air gunners; Sgt Frederick Edward Self RAFVR (1876760) and Sgt E M Watkins RAFVR (1897167). The two air gunners who died in the crash of Lancaster NF963 were originally part of F/Sgt R A Tapsell's crew (shown above) and had been on the strength of 550 Squadron for a few months more. Following the loss of their crew both Sgt's Watkins and Self then flew with F/Sgt Tapsell's crew (who were now short of two air gunners) and also with F/Lt D A Shaw. Frederick Self was killed with 550 Squadron in Lancaster NG336 that was lost over Germany.
Robert Bradshaw RNZAF and his grave at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery.
Arthur Pearce was born on 4th January 1922 at Madeley Heath, Staffordshire and was the son of Arthur and Mary Ann Pearce. His father died before his son enlisted for RAF service. Arthur attended Leycett Elementary School and then studied at City School of Commerce (at Stoke on Trent?). He initially worked for the Madeley Collieries Libraries Ltd, Leycett before working for W.H.Smith and Son Ltd at Stoke, the Silverdake Co-operative Society Ltd and the Staffordshire Territorial Army Association. He enlisted for RAF service in March 1943 and was a member of the local Home Guard at the time. He was engaged to be married to Beryl Rowe, of Madeley. Credit to Mr Phil Jones for the photograph of his uncle.
James McVey's grave in Lanarkshire.
Thomas Thomas received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) on 26th November 1943 and rose to F/O (war subs) on 26th May 1944.
This photograph depicts a P/O Hayter (front second from left) with Station Adjutant, F/Lt Waitt (front third from left) at 550 Squadron. No other names are known. It is almost certainly taken after the accident at Ellingstring and shows a group of airmen involved in a ground role rather than a flying role. Only one other on the photograph has any form of flying wings or half-wings. While Stanley Hayter almost certainly never flew again after the Ellingstring incident he would still wear his pilots' wings. Stanley Hayter was born on 28th October 1923 at Tewkesbury. He received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) on 10th July 1943 and rose to F/O (war subs) on 10th January 1944. Almost certainly as a result of the injuries he sustained in the incident detailed above he resigned his commission of F/O on 1st November 1945 on the grounds of being medically unfit. Given it was likely that he never fully recovered from his injuries before 1945 it is very unlikely that he ever returned to flying duties. By searching the death index it is likely that he died in the Colchester area of Essex in 2006.
John Skinn and I were aiming to locate this crash site to confirm it did not crash at "Stockdale Moor" on the North Yorkshire Moors as was the quoted location in both William Chorley's normally very accurate Bomber Command Losses book and in the public "crash-map" at the Yorkshire Air Museum. John and I located the site near Ellingstring in October 2003 after we had spent many hours searching Stockdale Moor on the North Yorkshire Moors for this aircraft's reputed crash site. The error in the crash location came about because the map reference quoted on the RAF accident record card was referring to the grid system in use on the wartime map, this system is not the same as the modern O.S. system and had not been converted prior to plotting it to the modern map. The normally infallible entries by one of the countries finest air historians William Chorley's losses books have resulted in the entries being treated as gospel, in this case he made a very rare error. I've have included this reference to explain the situation, this error has since been copied onto other websites and also put in print in other books without any form of checking their sources being made.
A piece of armour plating found in the Lancaster engine firewall shown above and an unidentified piece of plumbing work on the aircraft.
