Wellington BJ786 near Sawley, near Fountains Abbey.
On 11th April 1943 the crew of this aircraft took off from Pershore near Worcester at 21.15hrs to undertake a night-navigation training
exercise. During the flight and without warning the aicraft went into a dive and struck the ground at 01.30hrs in Fountains Park, near the
villages of Sawley and Markington to the North of Ripon. The aircraft struck a fairly substantial tree just prior to hitting the ground and all
those on the aircraft died as a result the crash. The cause was never discovered.
Pilot - F/Sgt Frank E Rogers RCAF (R/131020), aged 19, of Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Navigator - F/Sgt Joseph O T A A G Toupin RCAF (R/117511), aged 27, of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Navigator - F/Sgt Alexander N MacLellan RCAF (R/135643), aged 27, late of New York City, U.S.A. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Richard A Killham RCAF (R/136318), aged 20, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Donald H Smith RCAF (R/127875), aged 20, of Elfros, Saskatchewan, Canada. Buried Warwick Cemetery (Sec 104, grave 10).
Air Gunner - F/Sgt Anthony A Dorzek RCAF (R/135853), aged 27, of Renfrew, Ontario, Canada. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.
F/Sgt Frank Rogers RCAF and his gravestone at Dishforth Cemetery. This airman's brother, F/O Frederick Rogers RCAF was killed
some weeks later on 3rd August 1943 while serving with 428 Squadron he failed to return from a raid on Hamburg in Halifax EB274.
F/Sgt Joseph Toupin RCAF and his gravestone at Dishforth Cemetery.
Alexander MacLellan was a Canadian but had moved to New York City where he had been studying in engineering.
He had a brother, N A Maclellan who served in WW2. Photo credit - Inverness Academy Memorial Wall.
The graves of two further members of the crew whom I have not traced photographs of as yet.
Anthony Dorzek is commemerated on a memorial in a memorial park his home town of Renfrew, Ontario
(pictured below with the photograph found uncredited on the internet).
In June 2007 Yorkshire air historian Mr Ken Reast showed me the site of where this aircraft crashed, nothing remains on the surface today.
He had located the site some years ago when the stump of the tree still existed. A new fence had just been erected around the field when I was
shown the location and I found a peice of the aircraft in a heap of soil next to one of the new posts.
Donald Smith was born on 3rd February 1913 in Swansea, Wales. He and his parents moved to Elfros when he
was young and after school he began working at a hardware store there at fourteen years old. When the
store's owner died he bought the buisness and worked it into a successful buisness, he enlisted on
21st August 1941 in Toronto. Smith Lake in Saskatchewan is named in his honour.
