Wellington BJ895 at Wykeham Abbey, near Scarborough.

At 15.35hrs the crew on this aircraft took off from Leconfield airfield for its crew to carry out a fighter affiliation exercise with a Spitfire (Spitfire TD236, of "F" Flight piloted by S/Ldr L A Wood). The aircraft flew in a northerly direction, met up with the Spitfire over Driffield and then owing to low cloud the exercises were carried out at 10,000 feet over the Scarborough area. On board the Wellington was a pilot, a gunnery instructor and three trainee air gunners. During the exercise the Wellington was practicing taking evasive action when attacked by the fighter, it was thought that the pilot of the Wellington was made such a turn downwards, believed to have been the last of the exercise, but immediately after the last attack the Wellington went into a near verticle dive from between 6 to 7,000 feet from which the pilot did not recover. At 16.45hrs the aircraft crashed into the grounds of Wykeham Abbey and while not catching fire it disintergated on impact creating a large crater. All five on board stood no chance, they were killed instantly and the body of one of the crew was not found. The list below shows their trades as CWGC give. The resulting crash investigation reported that the aircraft had been reported as being nose-heavy in the weeks leading up to the crash, it was checked but was passed as serviceable.

The investigation listed a number of previous incidents when the aircraft had been inspected. It had been used in the prototype bouncing bomb trials and had its bomb doors removed for this. It was later converted back and on 1st December 1943 repairs were completed at Vickers factory, Weybridge. On 17th July 1946 it was test flown and rear doors found locked up. A day later on 18th July 1946 it was test flown and the elevator trim for level flight was found incorrectly set, the cables were adjusted for correct movement. On 23rd July 1946 it was flown by F/Lt Meikle, who reported the aircraft nose heavy and the port engine was running slow. Extra ballast was added and the port engine revs were adjusted. On 24th July 1946 it was flown by W/O Schwedoski, who reported aircraft was satisfactory. (He would be killed soon after in a crash at Appleton le Moors.) but later that day the fatal crash at Wykeham occured. The crash report concluded that the aircraft should never have been in the air on the day because of known problems with it, its crew were.

Pilot - WO Roland Harrison RAFVR (1606786), aged 25, of High Wycombe. Buried High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

Air Gunnery Instructor - F/Lt John C Haldon RAFVR (161008), aged 26, of Chideock, Dorset. Commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

Air Gunner - WO Frederick C Stiff RAFVR (931202), aged 34, of Hartest, Suffolk. Buried Hartest, Suffolk.

Air Gunner - F/Sgt Peter Ingram RAFVR (1604044), aged 22, of Fulham, London. Buried Fulham, London.

Wireless Operator / Mech Air - WO John F Armstrong RAFVR (1867735), aged 21, of Middlesborough. Cremated Darlington, Durham.

F/Lt Haldon was the most experienced airman in Wellington BJ895 on this date but his body was not recovered from the crash site and his name commemerated on the Runnymede Memorial. He was an air gunner during the War and had served with 70 Squadron in North Africa in 1943. The National Archives hold a remarkably detailed document giving his story of escape and evasion in 1943 which saw all but one of a crew of six evade capture after walking some 340 miles in a month through the desert, full details of this feat are given below.

On the night of 5th/6th September 1943 he was the front gunner in Wellington Z8976 tasked with bombing Tobruk when, at 23.15hrs the aircraft was flying at 12,000 feet and was approaching the target area when it was hit by anti-aircraft fire between six to ten miles west of Tobruk. The crew released their bombs but soon after both engines of the aircraft cut out though the starboard engine then began working again. The crew headed away from Tobruk in a rough south-easterly direction and it bacame obvious that they would not make Allied lines they made a smooth forced landing in the desert with none of the crew being injured. Because of the close proximity of the enemy troops it was decided not to set fire to the aircraft but to destroy all equipment in the aircraft by hand, they then filled any available container with water from the aircraft's water tank and moved from the area quickly. Having initially chosen to head north to the coast they changed their mind an hour into the walk and returned to the aircraft before walking south for the rest of the night. Over the next few days they used damaged vehicles to shelter from the heat of the midday sun and navigated between marked water supplies on their map. They luckily were assisted by Arabs they approached in the desert who either helped them on their way or offered supplies of food and water, they also found weapons and equipment in abandoned lorries as they went.

By day twelve the long walk had meant that the rear gunner's feet were becoming infected, the crew opted to head towards a road and should his feet become too bad to continue they would commandeer a lorry and try and continue by road. The following day they reached a road and spotted two parked lorries. At night the group jumped on the driver of one of the lorries but the attempt was not a success; the driver fought back and is thought to have shot the rear gunner before the other members of the crew opened fire on the driver. What they didn't know was that both lorries were carrying Italian troops and they were awoken by the noise. The aircrew fired at these troops, and although no other members of the crew had witnessed it, it was likely that the rear gunner, dispite his foot injuries, had fought against the troops and had been injured. He was not seen again by the rest of the crew and became a Prisoner of War. Between the night of day thirteen and day twenty two they continued to walk towards Allied lines and were assisted in this by a number of Arabs who again fed and watered them and directed them. On day twenty four nearing German lines they were assisted by Arabs who re-directed them away from their lines. Day twenty six brought heavy rain! Three days later they spotted two jeeps driven by British soldiers. They stopped the jeeps and were driven their camp. The following day they caught a lift to Alexandria with a rations lorry and to safety. These five airmen had walked some 340 miles in 29 days and this episode was a remarkable archievement, all were put forward for awards. The full crew who survived this adventure and details of their awards were:

Pilot - Sgt Reginald C Carter RAFVR (1289031), MiD
2nd Pilot - Sgt Arthur D Bebbington RAFVR (655944) - MM?, MiD
Navigator - Sgt Ivor Davies RAF (920641) - MM? MiD
Wireless Operator - P/O Brian E Johnston RCAF (J/15429) - MC?, DFC
Front Gunner - Sgt John C Haldon RAFVR (1283177) - MiD
Rear Gunner - F/Sgt Georges T B Croisiau RCAF (R/82128) - MiD

Reginald Carter received his commission on 22nd April 1943 (149463), He was Mentioned in Despatches on 2nd June 1943. He was later awarded the DFC in 1945 for service with 571 Squadron and survived the War.

George Croisiau became a PoW and was Mentioned in Despatches on 2nd June 1943. He was repatriated to Canada a year later and was released from the RCAF in December 1944.

Ivor Davies was Mentioned in Despatches on 2nd June 1943.

John Haldon was Mentioned in Despatches on 2nd June 1943. He was posted to 6 Group Bomber Command at the time of this plaudit. He received his commission on 18th October 1943 to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency), rising to F/O (war subs) on 18th April 1944 and F/Lt (war subs) on 18th October 1945. It's very sad that having survived the desert he was lost in the accident at Wykeham in peace-time.

Arthur Bebbington was awarded the Military Medal, he received his commission on 12th December 1942 (141140) but rejoined 70 Squadron. He was killed on 23rd March 1943 flying in North Africa and was Mentioned in Despatches after his death on 2nd June 1943.

Brian Johnston received the Distinguished Flying Cross (Gazetted on 5th February 1943). He was the only one not to be Mentioned in Despatches having already been awarded his DFC.

The pilot of Wellington BJ895, Roland Harrison, had a total of 732 hours flying at the time of his death, 37 hours of which were on the Wellington type. He had begun his training in January 1943.
F/Sgt Peter Ingram was attached to the CGS from 100 Squadron, and the 100 Squadron ORB records his death. His brother was also an air gunner and was killed on the 17th April 1944, and is buried in Delhi War Cemetery.
Frederick Stiff's brother AC1 George Edward Stiff RAFVR died as a PoW while being held by the Japaneese, he died on 9th December 1942, he was twenty two years old and has no known grave.

The aircraft crashed close to where this modern road now is. Air historian Graham Sharpe and I visited the crash site in March 2005, a number of small peices of the aircraft are still present at the site. We would like to express our thanks to Lord Downe for allowing our visit and for the help he was able to give us allowing the site to be located without difficulty. I would also like to thank Mr Sharpe for fixing up our visit.

As a footnote to visiting the site, please note that the crash site and general area of Wykeham Abbey is strictly private property. Not only that, please treat the area with respect, the body of F/Lt Haldon was not recovered from the site. There is no memorial to him at Wykeham. If anyone reading this has photographs of any of the crew I would like to add them to this webpage.

Two days later the same flying school would have another accident when a Spitfire collided with a Wellington at Appleton Le Moors. This accident is covered in my North Yorkshire Moors listings.