Whitley P4942 at Appleton le Street, Malton.
The Whitley was returning from a raid on Berlin on the 24th of September 1940, when it ran low on fuel and the
pilot made a forced landing near Appleton le Street at 04.00hrs and all on board survived. The aircraft flew very
low over the village and just managed to pull up in order to avoid hitting the church tower. The pilot put it down in fields
behind the church, it skidded across one of these fields but came to rest vertually intact. The photograph of the aircraft shown below shows the
propellers in an unbent states, this usually means the engines were not turning when the aircraft touched down, and in this case backs up the
story of it being totally out of fuel. The crew were uninjured.
A retired Army Major or Captain; surname of Knobbs, took the crew to his house in Amotherby where
he gave them breakfast
before the RAF authorities arrived and collected them. An RAF maintainance unit spend some time at the crash site
taking the aircraft to peices and
removing it by road. They lived in tents at the site during this period which was probably common practice for these incidents.
During this time here they were often visited by local children, some of whom collected scraps of the aircraft. The main bulk of the aircraft was taken away
on large trailers and rebuilt.
The raid itself consisted of 129 aircraft and between them they bombed seven railyards, six electric power stations, three gas
works and two factories employed in making aircraft parts. In a three hour period 112 aircraft dropped bombs from between 4,500 and
16,000 feet, searchlights and ground mist made identifying the targets hard.
Whitley P4942 was built to contract 75147/38 by Armstrong Whitworth at Baginton and delivered directly to 77 Sqdn at Kinloss in April
1940. It moved with the unit to Driffield on 4th May 1940 then to Linton-on-Ouse on 28th August 1940. It sustained Cat R(b) damage in
the inicident detailed above at Appleton le Street. It was repaired in works and on completion it was issued to 10 OTU at Abingdon
in early 1941. It was written off at Abingdon on 1th October 1941 when it overshot a landing. The pilot on this occasion being P/O L Anderle.
Pilot - P/O Antony C L Akroyd-Stuart RAF (72476), ok. Prpbably of Halifax, Yorkshire/ Australia. He latterly served as "S/Ldr A C L A Stuart RAFVR".
Crew - Names unknown, ok.
This photograph shows the Whitley in the field above Appleton le Street. It is believed to be out
of copyright but first appeared in Brian Rapiers "Warplanes Return" book and later appeared in his "White Rose Base".
The same field in 2009 and probably the crash site, though perhaps slightly too high up the field.
Antony Akroyd-Stuart (photo YAM). F/Lt Antony Charles Letteblere Akroyd-Stuart (or incorrectly ACkroyd-Stuart, sources vary) was
commanding 34 EFTS on 14th August 1941, on this date the Duke of Kent inspected the Medicine Hat base in Canada.
Although under research at the moment I suspect completed a Tour with 77 Sqdn and following his posting to Canada
he volunteered for further service in the UK following this period in Canada and returned
to the UK. He then served with 76 Sqdn as a Squadron Leader but was sadly killed whilst flying a further Tour on 31st August 1943.
Halifax DK207 (carrying nose art of "Saint the Second") was shot down by a night fighter and crashed in Holland. four others were
killed and two were made PoW. He was 26 years old.
While still under research the Ackroyd-Stuart Prize given by the Royal Aeronautical Society. It seems likely that this was
created in memory of the pilot's Uncle who invented the
"Hornsby-Akroyd Patent Oil Engine", this was an engine which worked similar to that of the Diesel engine and there were
patent issues between the two companies. Although Diesel is credited and thus the famous name it was probably Akroyd-Stuart
who invented the type of engine. It was the pilots father along with this brother, who on moving to Australia
set up the Sanders & Stuart company.
I credit the now late Mr Ray Magson, of Appleton, for recounting his memories of this incident, he was one of the school children who went to
the aircraft when it was being taken apart.