Whitley Z9481 on Great Whernside.

On 27th March 1942 the crew of this aircraft took off from Dishforth at 20.29hrs to bomb St.Nazaire in Northern France, because of heavy cloud over the target the crew did not bomb and may have dumped their load in The Channel on their return. Over Northern England the wind direction had changed and they drifted too far west, their wireless set had also failed resulting in them having no way of contacting anyone to seek assistance. The navigator (observer) gave the pilot a direction of 035' to follow believing he had worked out their position, however the pilot misunderstood this and set a course of 350' which sent them off in the wrong direction. It is believed they descended through cloud thinking they were more to the east of the Pennines and in the Vale of York. The aircraft flew into the ground on the southern flanks of Great Whernside at 05.25hrs on the 28th March 1942 injuring all of the crew. Deep snow was covering the area at the time. The pilot was able to pull the nose of the aircraft up at the very last moment which probably saved his crew from more serious injuries. On crashing both the pilots and the observer were thrown out of the aircraft and into the snow. The aircraft's tail broke off and ended up bending around to rest near the cockpit trapped the gunner upside-down in his turret. The two others were trapped inside and these three were to wait some eleven hours before being freed and taken to hospital. Their injuries must have varied to different degrees, the wireless operator spent a year in hospital but others were to return to flying much sooner as is detailed below.

Pilot - F/Sgt Ernest Clow RNZAF (402450), of New Plymouth, New Zealand. Injured.

Second Pilot - P/O Arthur Scott.

Observer - Sgt Richard Stanley I Ryder RAFVR (1267013).

Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt George Fraser "Sandy" MacKay RAF, of Edinburgh.

Wireless Operator / Air Gunner (U/T) - Sgt William A Jones.

Rear Gunner - Sgt R H Craven.

Sgt MacKay was hospitalised for nearly a year having sustained serious head injuries. He had already flown a tour of thirty operations but after his crash he was never fit enough to fly again. On returning to RAF duties he was posted to Snaith into “Flying Control” then moved to various stations in the south of England, through correspondance with his daughter in 2011 stations in Devon and Cornwall seem likely, before a posting to near Christchurch. Because of his health he was eventually given a static posting home to Edinburgh where he stayed at Turnhouse until his demobilisation after the war in 1946. He had already met and married his Yorkshire-born wife during the war, they later returned to Yorkshire to live in Filey. George or "Sandy" MacKay wrote a letter to The Dalesman magazine in the 1960's explaining what had happened in the incident on Great Whernside. Air historian Graham Sharpe wrote to him following this letter and received a much longer letter detailing the events of the night. He apparently suffered from complications and stress caused by this incident. In July 1989 he was admitted to hospital and sadly died as a result of these conditions. I am most greatful for Sandy MacKay's daughter and great granddaughter for contacting me in 2011 and for the information that have been kind enough to provide to this account. I also thank them for kindly allowing the photograph of Sandy MacKay to appear here.

Ernie Clow and Arthur Scott were posted out of 51 Squadron less than a month after this incident.

Ernest Clow was born on 27th February 1927 and enlisted in July 1940 in New Zealand. After a Tour with 51 Squadron he was posted to 138 Squadron and on 25th March 1943 flying Halifax HR665. The aircraft was damaged and he was made a PoW after he was forced to ditch it in the Ijsselmeer. His crew were all made PoW's but one of his agents was sadly killed in the incident. Ernest Clow sustained injuries in the incident and spent some time in hospital in occupied Europe. Having survived the War he was presented with the Netherlands Flying Cross which was Gazetted on 9th October 1945 probably for his actions with 138 Squadron for his SOE work.

F/Sgt Ryder was lost on 6th September 1942 and was still flying with 51 Squadron who were on attachment to Coastal Command at the time. He is commemmerated on the Runnymede Memorial but his personal details are not listed on the CWGC database.
It is possible that the "R H Craven" listed above was one Sgt Richard Henry Craven RAFVR (800587) and if so then he received his commission to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) on 25th October 1942, rising to F/O on probation (war subs) on 25th April 1943 and F/Lt (war subs) on 25th October 1944. He relinquished his commission on account of medical unfitness, retaining the F/Lt rank on 1st February 1946.
Nothing more is known about the other members of this crew. Should any relation of them read this then I would be interested in learning their correct and full identities.

The site has proved hard to track down in more modern years. The first and only air historian I have found to have located the site was Mr Graham Sharpe, he found the site by accident in 1969 but tried to locate the site again some time later but was unable to. The photograph above shows a peice of the aircraft Mr Sharpe recovered but although not visible in the photograph it shows a "A.W." (Armstrong Whitworth) marking.