Whitley P4981 near Hemsworth, Pontefract.

On 11th February 1941 this 51 Squadron aircraft took off from Dishforth airfield at 18.30hrs for Ops to Bremen where they attacked from 10,000ft. The aircraft suffered from having it's wireless set fail while on the return trip but after two hours the wireless operator managed to repair it. The weather had closed in over the East and North of England on their return and a number of accidents occurred with many aircraft trying to land after becoming low on fuel. This crew were unable to comploy with diversion orders instructing them to go to "DrAm" which was an error for DrEm in Southern Scotland. Because of this error they were unable to find the location on a map. This crew attempted to land at Linton on Ouse five times but were then instructed to go to Finningley as there was a break in the cloud further south. On their arrival the fog had closed in again and Finningley then ordered them to climb to 5,000ft and bale out. The pilot complied with this order where the crew baled out over the vicinity of Grimethorpe, and the aircraft crashed near Hemsworth, between Barnsley and Pontefract. Three of the crew sustained injuries in bad landings and the rear gunner struck the guns on his exit and sustained injuries both as a result of this and landing in a ditch.

Pilot - Sgt D L Boyer RAFVR (748444), not injured.

Second Pilot - P/O Frank Thompson Flower RAFVR (79541), landed heavily, slightly injured.

Observer - Sgt W F Hurst RAFVR (745980), uninjured.

Wireless Operator - Sgt P Radford RAFVR (701939), sprained ankle.

Air Gunner - Sgt J N A James RAF (552114), struck guns on way out and landed heavily.