On the night of 16th / 17th December 1943 the crew of this 426 Squadron aircraft took off from Linton on Ouse airfield at 16.22hrs to undertake an operational flight to bomb Berlin. All appears to have gone to plan over the target with the crew releasing their bomb load. On their return to Northern England the problems began. This night would become known as "The Black Night" for the shear number of Bomber Command aircraft that were lost due to incorrectly forecast weather. On their return to the UK many of the Northern airfields were fog-bound with the thick fog being as low as ground level in places. Getting all the aircraft down became a difficult task for flying controllers and many aircraft crashed or were damaged after running low on fuel or making hurried descents to try and find a landing site. The crew of DS779 had reached the general area of the Vale fo York and were in contact with flying control at Linton on Ouse who had told that the the cloud base at Linton was at 800 feet. The Lancaster crew were using the GEE navigation system to locate their base and they then began to let down as they headed there and to hopefully drop through the fog which they presumably believed would clear as they dropped below 800 feet. As it turned out the fog layer a few miles south of Linton on Ouse was not limited to being above 800 feet, around the Wetherby area the fog was down to ground level. A minor incorrect setting in the altimeter gave them no room for error. The aircraft simply descended down through the cloud at a shallow angle until it was flying at ground level, it flew at field level for several hundred yards and broke off all the propeller blades, one of the rudder sections and other parts of the aircraft. The pilot was able to pull the aircraft back into the air and it cleared a line of electricity wires and a row of trees but then the aircraft lost flying speed and it crashed around a mile further on at 23.25hrs. Sadly the five members of the crew were all killed in the crash near Northlands Farm, Hunsingore while the two air gunners further back in the aircraft survived though one appears to have been badly injured because Sgt Duncan Stewart died on 24th February 1944 at Northallerton Hospital and this appears to have been the result of the injuries sustained in the crash at Hunsingore two months earlier.

Pilot - WO2 Reginald Donald Stewart RCAF (R/130152), aged 20, of Cochrane, Ontario. Canada. of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire (C/G/10).

Flight Engineer - Sgt Leslie Sale RAFVR (1491828), aged 32, of Mexborough. Buried Mexborough Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Navigator - F/O Howard Paul Morris RCAF (J/14392), aged 22, of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire (C/G/6).

Bomb Aimer - F/O William Hamilton RAFVR (129614), aged 22, of Brighton. Buried Hove New Cemetery, Sussex.

Wireless Opeator / Air Gunner - Sgt John Greenwell RAFVR (933268), aged 23, of West Kilburn. Buried Willesden New Cemetery, Middlesex.

Air Gunner - Sgt Duncan Ernest Stewart RAFVR (1391538). Died on 24th February 1944. Aged 20. Buried Sidcup Cemetery.

Air Gunner - Sgt Donald Sinclair Jamieson RCAF (R/180248). Injured.

Reginald Stewart was born on 2nd October 1923 at Cochrane, Ontario, Canada and was a son of John and Eleanor Ann (nee Payette) Stewart. He was working in a local garage when he enlisted for RCAF service on 21st October 1941 at North Bay. He appears to have initially started wireless operator / air gunnery training but made the switch to pilot training in early 1942. Normally this switch would be the other way round with trainee pilots failing a course and switching trades. He was awarded his pilot's wings on 20th November 1942. On arrival in the UK in early 1943 he trained at 14 (P)AFU and 19 OTU before posting to 426 Squadron on 21st July 1943 who were flying Wellingtons at the time. He (and other members of this crew) converted to fly the Lancaster type at 1679 Conversion Flight in September 1943 before returning to 426 Squadron.

Howard Morris was born on 19th Seotember 1821 at Sarnia, Ontario, Canada and was the son of Lloyd David and Marie Morris. At the time of enlisting into the RCAF he was working with asbestos for Imperial Oils Ltd (not the most safest of jobs given what we now know about asbestos). He enlisted on 19th July 1941 in London, Ontario and trained as an air observer, receiving his observer's (navigator's) flying badge on 25th September 1942 and also a commission on the same date. He was posted to the UK in October 1942 and may then have served as a staff navigator with No.4 AOS for a few months until going down the operational Bomber Command route. He then trained at 6 AOS and 22 OTU before posting to 426 Squadron on 20th May 1943.

A fantastic photograph of John Greenwell. I thank his great niece Eliza Greenwell for kindly supplying the photograph for inclusion on this webpage.

Don Jamieson's story is a very sad one and is also recorded in a number of places on the internet, while not wanting to copy other people's work I feel it also needs to be given on the page that details this earlier incident that killed most of his original crew. Donald Jamieson was born on 2nd June 1924 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and was the son of Thomas Cameron and Diana Christina (nee Johnson) Jamieson. He was fresh out of school when he enlisted for RCAF service on 24th July 1942 in Winnipeg for aircrew service and then trained as an air gunner. After training in Canada he was awarded his air gunner's flying badge on 14th May 1943. On arrival in the UK soon after he was posted straight to 426 Squadron (who were still flying Wellingtons) and avoided any OTU or HCU training. He would later convert from Wellingtons to Lancasters at 1679 Conversion Flight in September 1943 before returning to 426 Squadron. He received a commission on 19th December 1943. Following the crash at Hunsingore on 16th December 1943 he was injured and spent a month sick before returning operationally fit at the end of January 1944. He was flying in Lancaster DS757 on 5th March 1944 when it was being flown on an air test combined with a sea search of the area of North Sea off Bridlington. During which the aircraft hit the water and and ended up being ditched. Sadly one member of his then crew died. He and the other five members were rescued. On the night of 28th / 29th June 1944 he was flying in Halifax NP683 on Ops to Metz, France when the aircraft was badly damaged by a night-fighter. All the crew baled out and survived, with some managing to evade capture. He and his then navigator, F/O Hugh Waldie Birnie RCAF (J/19162), were eventually caught in August 1943 but were handed to the members of The Gestapo at Pont L-Eveque. Both Don Jamieson and Hugh Birnie were taken by SS guards Harold Heyns and Herbert Koch and are believed to have been murdered by them on either 21st or 22nd August 1944 prior to an allied advance that took the area. The quarry network of St.Hymer was used to shoot a number of other people around this date and this was probably where both Jamieson and Birnie were killed, they have no known grave and they therefore are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. Don Jamieson was still only twenty years old. In the post-war years the British War Crimes unit caught up with the two SS men and they faced a War Crimes trial but which in court Harold Heyns was allowed to go to the toilet unsupervised, jumped out of the toilet window and was never seen again (he was sentanced to death in absentia and Herbert Koch received eight years imprisonment).

Back to monthly table.