Whitley T4205 near Raskelf, Easingwold.
On the 3rd of December 1940, this Whitley took off from Topcliffe at 16.32hrs for Ops to Mannheim.
For some reason the crew did not release their bombs over the target and brought them home and while making for their Yorkshire base at Topcliffe
the aircraft was force landed near Easingwold, at Boscar Wood, Raskelf at around 03.40hrs. Lack of fuel was blamed for the landing being attempted
(but not suprising given the time in the air), the wireless had also failed and they were unable to get signals to locate an airfield. A fire broke out which caused
one of the bombs to explode later (probably at another
time quoted for the crash itself) at around 06.00hrs. All five crew men were injured and the aircraft destroyed as a result.
Whitley T4205 was built to contract 38599/39 by Armstrong Whitworth at Baginton and delivered to the RAF during the first week of September 1940
to 77 Squadron at Linton-on-Ouse. It moved with the unit to Topcliffe on 5th October 1940. It sustained Cat.W/Burnt damage in the incident detailed above.
Pilot - Sgt N C Bizley RAFVR (242472?), broken leg and arm.
2nd Pilot - P/O Leonard E Pearson RAF (42639), of Scorton, Lancashire. Slightly injured.
Obs - Sgt Sewell, injured.
WOp/AG - Sgt Middleton, injured.
WOp/AG - Sgt Engel, injured.
This was Sgt Bizley's second crash within a month; he had ditched a Whitley off Hornsea in mid-November 1940 on
return from Ops to Berlin. On 6/7th July 1941 Sgt Bizley was flying Whitley Z6642 on Ops to Dortmund, his aircraft crashed in Holland and
he and the four he was flying with became PoW's.
Len Pearson would also survive the crash landing of Whitley T4293 at Topcliffe on 28th December 1940 which collided with Whitley P5005 (detailed on this website).
As F/O he was killed piloting Whitley Z6585 which crashed in Europe on Ops on 17/18th April 1941, he was twenty one years old and is buried in Hamburg Cemetery, Germany.
His brother Stanley served in the Army and was sadly killed just after the War on 3rd December 1945.