Landing of a Hampden near Barton le Street.

In early August 1941 a Hampden was returning from a raid when, in bad weather, it was forced to land with its wheels down and out of fuel, in a ploughed field between Barton le Street, Slingsby and Butterwick. It flew in from the North. It was on a week day towards the start of the week but I have not got an exact date for this yet. The pilot zig-zagged up the small field to apparently slow down, this worked and the aircraft came to a stop in the same field with no damage, the zig-zags were clear visable across the field. The crew must have been collected and returned to their base by road. During the week an RAF tanker came and fuel was put in the aircraft with the hope that it could take off from nearby fields. The Hampden was also towed out of this ploughed field, through a gate and into a grass field ajoining the field were it had landed. It was then backed up as far as it could be taken to give it as much room for take-off as possible. A hedge at the far end of the field was taken up to increase the take-off area and the space was made flat. Some large ash trees at the end of the next field which it now was facing were thought to have posed a hazard although nothing was done about them. During the whole time the aircraft was here a guard was placed on it, even so local boys managed to get inside the plane and have a look around it. I have been given a peice of the aircraft which was liberated from it whilst in the ploughed field and the same gentleman has also given me the small peice of paper he wrote the aircraft's squadron code. ( see below for a scan )

Sunday the 10th of August came, either on the morning of this day or previously the Squadron's Anson was landed on this newly created strip. I am told that this contained a crew to fly out the Hampden. Just after lunch on the Sunday the Hampden's engines were fired up and the aircraft attempted take-off along this runway. A large crowd of locals had gathered to watch, this included many young boys from the area. It was thought that the Hampden would not be able to clear the ash trees at the far end of the strip but it managed with feet to spare. The aircraft then circed round and waved to those on the ground and then flew off. The Anson then took off on the same "runway" and also flew away.

On the night of 5th/6th August 1941, 65 Wellingtons and 33 Hampdens took part in a raid on the towns of Mannheim and Karlsruhe. The aircraft left their bases in the very late evening, from 22.00hrs onwards due to double summer time and very light nights. Dawn was around 05.00hrs and it must have been light for the aircraft to make a wheels down landing. Which aircraft this was is yet to be determined.

Crew - unknown.

Peice of paper containing the aircraft's squadron codes and date of incident.