On 27th March 1942 the crew of this 51 Squadron aircraft took off from Dishforth at 20.29hrs to bomb St.Nazaire in Northern France, because of thick cloud covering the target the crew did not bomb and may have jettisoned 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 actually 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 and 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.
Whitley Z9481 was built to contract 106962/40 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd. at Baginton and was awaiting collection on 6th January 1942. It was taken on charge by 51 Squadron in February 1942 at Dishforth. As a result of the crash on the side of Great Whernside on 28th March 1942 the damage assessment was graded as being Cat.E2/FB and it was written off.
Pilot - F/Sgt Ernest Clow RNZAF (NZ.402450). Injured.
Second Pilot - P/O Arthur Scott RAFVR (104501).
Observer - Sgt Richard Stanley I Ryder RAFVR (1267013).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt George Fraser MacKay RAFVR (1007934). Injured.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner (U/T) - Sgt William Arthur Jones RAFVR (1256589). Injured.
Rear Gunner - Sgt Richard Henry Craven RAFVR (800587).
Sgt "Sandy" 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 grateful 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.
During some research work in 51 Squadron's 1943 ORB's there is a mention to Sgt W A Jones and Sgt G F MacKay but re-mustering to ground trades on 20th and 24th March 1943 respectively and both are listed as wireless operators. It is highly likely that both men are the same individuals as involved in the Whitley crash near Kettlewell nearly a year earlier.
William Jones transferred to the Admin and Special Duties Branch and received a commission to the rank of Acting P/O on probation (emergency) on 18th November 1943 (159843), he was graded as P/O on probation on 13th January 1944 and was promoted to F/O (war subs) on 13th July 1944. He remained in the RAFVR until 4th May 1956 when he relinquished his commission of F/O, retaining the rank of F/Lt.
Arthur Scott was from Newcastle upon Tyne. He received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 9th August 1941 and would receive promoted to F/O on 9th August 1942 and F/Lt on 9th August 1943. He begun his operational flying with 51 Squadron on 7th December 1941, around a month after the mishap on Great Whernside he was posted out of 51 Squadron and transferred to 58 Squadron. He later received a posting to 179 Squadron. For service with 179 Squadron he was awarded the DFC, Gazetted on 9th July 1943. The recommendation for his DFC, as found on "http://en.ww2awards.com/person/48835" reads..
"Flying Officer Scott has completed 500 hours of operational flying of which the last 380 hours have been in 179 Squadron. During this time his infectious enthusiasm and keenness on flying have been a fine example to the Squadron, and the efficient way he has drilled his crew has been responsible for their making one sighting and two attacks on U-boats in 11 days." and "In view of these excellent attacks and of his courage and extreme devotion to duty, Flying Officer Scott is strongly recommended for official recognition". He later served with 38 Squadron and left the RAF in 1946. His DFC and logbook sold at auction in 2012.
Ernest Clow was born on 27th February 1927 at New Plymouth, New Zealand 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.
Richard Ryder was born on 28th October 1918, possibly at Seaford, Sussex and possibly the son of John and Annie Ryder. He attended the Emanuel School, Battersea between 1930 and 1935. In the 1939 Register he was serving in the Police (PC No.808) and was living at Bethnal Green Police Station. He was still serving with 51 Squadron on 6th September 1942, who were on attachment to Coastal Command at the time, when Whitley Z9387 failed to return from an operational flight. He had no known grave and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. His personal details are not listed on the CWGC database. I thank Daniel Kirmatzis for contacting me in July 2013 and was kindly supplying the photograph shown above of Richard Ryder taken before he joined the RAF. Further details on him are to be found on "http://emanuelschoolatwar.wordpress.com".
Sgt Richard Craven was posted to No.10 Conversion Unit on 22nd April 1942. He received a 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.
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 piece of the aircraft Mr Sharpe recovered in 1969 but although not visible in the photograph it shows a "A.W." (Armstrong Whitworth) marking.