Whitley T4293 at Topcliffe airfield.
On the 28th of December 1940 this aircraft was returning from Ops to Bordeaux, France to bomb an airfield. On landing back at Topcliffe at 02.27hrs the aircraft struck another aircraft and
sustained serious damage. The crew escaped serious injury.
Although the other aircraft is not given it may well have been Whitley P5005 which is known to have been damaged in late-December 1940 (also by an unknown Whitley)
and I therefore link the two incidents.
Pilot - Sgt Harold J Dowling RAFVR (754022), of Cottingham, Hull, Yorkshire.
2nd Pilot - P/O Leonard E Pearson RAF (42639), of Scorton, Lancs.
Obs - Sgt John S Bools RAFVR (755544), of Bristol.
WOp - Sgt Gill
AG - Sgt Hurlston
Sgt Dowling was killed on 4th April 1941 and is buried in Hull Northern Cemetery. He was the pilot of Whitley Z6583 which crashed in Sussex, he was twenty years old.
F/O Pearson was pilot of Whitley Z6585 which crashed in Europe on Ops on 17/18th April 1941, he was 21 years old and is buried in Hamburg Cemetery.
His brother Stanley served in the Army and was sadly killed just after the War on 3rd December 1945. prior to the incident detailed above P/O Pearson had survived the
crash of Whitley T4205 near Easingwold at the start of December 1940.
Sgt Bools was killed on the same raid as F/O Pearson on 18th April 1941 flying in Whitley T4338 which also crashed in Europe. He was aged 25 and is buried in Berlin War Cemetery.