Whitley P4967 in the field at Nether Silton (photograph - Brian Rapier).
On 3rd September 1940 this 10 Squadron Whitley, "J for Johnny", took from Leeming at 20.26hrs to bomb a power transformer plant in Berlin. Because of 5/10th's cloud conditions this crew were unable to locate the primary and secondary targets, they spotted a marshalling yard two miles from the primary target and made two attacks on it. They returned to Yorkshire but ran low on fuel and the wireless failed. The pilot was forced to make a landing at 06.45hrs in a field near Nether Silton. The aircraft landed with it's undercarriage up in a small field near Hall Farm, Nether Silton, to the south of Osmotherley and the aircraft was badly damaged but the crew escaped injury. Looking at the damage on these two photographs the damage appears to have been caused by the aircraft running through a hedge and coming to rest against a tree.
Pilot - F/Lt Dennis Brendon Geoffrey Tomlinson RAF (37989).
Second Pilot - P/O Kenneth Douglas Brant RAF (81655).
Observer - Sgt Wilfred Campbell Walters RAF (581003).
Wireless Operator - Sgt Patrick Joseph Hughes RAF (619106).
Air Gunner - Sgt Angus Jack McIntosh RAFVR (966647).
Another view of the crash site.
Dennis Tomlinson was born in London on 10th November 1915. On the night of 8th / 9th September 1940 F/Lt Tomlinson was piloting Whitley P4961 when his rear gunner (Sgt McIntosh) baled out over Germany after the aircraft was fired on by anti aircraft fire but was not serious damaged by it. The aircraft returned to base where it was found slightly damaged possibly when the rear gunner left the aircraft and struck the tail. Tomlinson was also to be involved in another incident only weeks later near Thirsk which saw two of his then crew being killed when they failed to bale out of the aircraft before it crashed. He had been promoted to F/Lt on 3rd September 1940 and later to Acting S/Ldr on 1st September 1941. He was awarded the DFC for service with 10 Squadron on 17th January 1941 and completed his Tour with 10 Squadron and was posted for an instructional role with 10 OTU based at Abingdon. When he was killed on 2nd June 1942 10 OTU were one of a number training units instructed to put up a number of bombers for Ops to Essen on this night. This was the night of the second Thousand Bomber raid. He was pilot of Whitley Z6581 which was shot down by a night fighter to the east of Arnhem and is buried in Gendringen Roman Catholic Cemetery, Holland. He had married Hannah Maxted in Summer 1941 (who was either local to Abingdon or had gone with him to the airfield). Dennis Tomlinson was twenty six years old.
Sgt McIntosh was made a PoW as a result of leaving Whitley P4961 on 8th/9th September 1940, he was not given an order to bale out but left the aircraft on his own accord probably believing the aircraft was out of control during a period of the pilot taking evasive flak action. He spent the rest of the War as a PoW at Camp L6, PoW No. 281.
Kenneth Brant received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 29th June 1940. On 21st October 1940 he was the pilot of Whitley P4961 that suffered an engine fire and made a landing at Cold Kirby, this incident is also detailed on this website. He was awarded the DFC for service with 10 Squadron, Gazetted in March 1941 but no citation has yet been found. He was sadly killed on 26th June 1941 while flying with 21 OTU at Kinloss in Whitley N1379 while almost certainly instructing. The aircraft crashed near Kinloss soon after taking off for a training flight. He is buried in Durrington Cemetery, Worthing, Sussex. I thank Ms Nikki Sheeran for kindly supplying the photograph of his grave and inscription on town war memorial shown here.
As a F/Sgt, Patrick Hughes was later awarded the Air Force Medal, Gazetted on 1st January 1944 while serving with No.1 Aircraft Delivery Unit. Nothing more is known about his service.
Sgt Walters was later posted to 35 Squadron and on 24th July 1941 he was flying in Halifax L9512 which was shot down on an attack of the German ship The Scharnhorst. The whole crew became PoWs. On 30th December 1947 he was belatedly Mentioned in Despatches for his actions in damaging the battleship. The crew were re-united forty years later and flew into Linton on Ouse in a Piper Lance in 1981. Sammy Walters died in October 1982.
Whitley P4967 was built to contract 75147/38 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd. at Baginton and was awaiting collection in late April 1940. It was allotted to 10 Squadron on 26th April 1940 and was taken on charge by them at Dishforth on 10th May 1940. It was immediately damaged on Ops when it received Cat.M/FB damage on 18th May 1940 on Ops to Bremen whilst bombing an oil storage facilities it was hit by flak and sustained damage to the fabric covering on port aileron and some fuselage damage. The crew returned safely to Dishforth. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service. It moved with the unit to Leeming on 8th July 1940. On 4th September 1940 crash landed at Nether Silton. The damage was assessed and Cat.W/FB damage was the assessment. It was struck off charge on 21st September 1940.