Tomahawk AH912 near Kirby Hill.
On 16th December 1942 a member of Dishforth's ground crew attempted to fly this 1472 (Dive-Bombing) Flight aircraft and managed to leave the ground briefly. Being untrained and having no previous flying experience it appears that he knew little of how to control the aircraft in the air. He managed to clear the boundary, hopped over the A1 before the aircraft stalled and crashed in a field 400 yards
later at 10.10hrs around a mile north west of Kirby Hill. He was sadly killed in the crash.
(Pilot) / Fitter IIE - AC1 Arthur Orchard Biddulph RAF (635791), aged 21. Buried Woolwich Cemetery, London.
The unit is given as being 1472 Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Flight in pretty much every modern reference to this number unit that I can find. The 1472 Flight record book gives the unit title as being 1472 (D-B) Flight, or 1472 (Dive-Bombing) Flight. As the scribe of the orb was there at the time I'm leaning towards 1472 (Diving-Bombing) Flight being correct.
Arthur Biddolph was born on 27th October 1921 at Calcutta, India and enlisted for RAF service on 27th February 1939. Arthur 'John' Biddulph was buried in Woolwich Cemetery in a collective grave and his headstone also commemorates Pte Richard John Wheeler, Pioneer Corps who died on 15th January 1944.
Historians Ken Reast, Albert Pritchard and Eric Barton sought permission from the landowner to search for the site in May 2006 and located small fragments on the surface to confirm the location. In June 2007 Ken showed me where their finds were located. The site came very close to being lost by the A1 motorway upgrade in 2011 but just escaped the bulldozers. The photograph below shows small fragments located on the surface by Eric and that were retained by him following their visit.
Tomahawk AH912 was built to British Purchasing Corporation contract A-84 by Curtiss-Wright Corporation at Buffalo, New York, USA and was transported to the UK by ship, arriving at Liverpool Docks in February 1941. From there it was taken by road to No.1 A.A.U. at Speke for assembly and testing and was then placed into MU storage. Its first unit was with 41 OTU which formed at Old Sarum on 20th September 1941. It then served with 168 Squadron at Snailwell and this squadron formed on 15th June 1942 before moving to Bottisham on 13th July 1942. In November 1942 168 Squadron ceased operating Tomahawk MkII's so the aircraft was transferred to 1472 Flight at Dishforth on 17th November 1942. As a result of the crash on 16th December 1942 the aircraft was written off with Cat.E2/FA damage being recorded.
