On the night of 8th / 9th July 1941 the crew of this 78 Squadron Whitley were tasked with an operational flight to bomb marshalling yards in Hamm. 78 Squadron were instructed to supply twelve aircraft for the raid with the first of their aircraft taking off at 22.50hrs and the were to cross the coast at Filey at 23.23hrs and fly directly to the target. On their return this aircraft was forced to make a rough landing on moorland above Kepwick at 05.25hrs after it had run out of fuel before an airfield was reached. The five crew members were uninjured and the aircraft was removed by lorry and taken away to be repaired. The exact location of where this landing occurred has yet to be determined but the I.B.C.C. archives shows a photograph of this aircraft and it appears to be on moorland just south of the Kepwick to Arden road.
Pilot - Sgt Bernard Thomas McColl Jones RAAF (400090).
Second Pilot - Sgt Vivian John Moorfoot RAFVR (1051804).
Observer - Sgt Smythe.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Beaton.
Air Gunner - Sgt Jones.
Whitley Z6491 was built to contract 106912/40 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd at Baginton. It was allotted to 6 MU on 3rd January 1941 and was received by them on 5th February 1941. The aircraft was taken on charge by 78 Squadron at Disforth on 21st February 1941 and moved with the unit to Middleton St.George on 7th April 1941. It carried a small nose art with the name "Aussie Boomerang". The aircraft's AM Form 78 states it received a damage assessment by No.43 Group D.A. on 17th May 1941. The repair on site was complete on 13th June 1941 and it was returned to 78 Squadron. As a result of the above incident on 9th July 1941 it sustained Cat.B/FB damage, No.43 Group D.A. assessed it and it was dismantled and removed from the site by road to be repaired in works. It arrived at Roll Royce Servce Section on 12th July 1941. Exactly what happened to it for the rest of the year is not yet clear. On 6th January 1942 it appears to have gone to Marshalls Ltd and was ready and awaiting allocation on 28th February 1942. The aircraft was flown to 6 MU on 29th March 1942 and was taken on charge by 24 OTU at Honeybourne on 19th April 1942 a month after the unit formed on 15th March 1942. The aircraft was passed to 10 OTU at Abingdon on 4th August 1941 (where it was damaged a number of times), back to 24 OTU at Honeybourne on 6th April 1944 and finally 19 OTU at Kinloss on 15th April 1944. It was written off with Cat.E2/FA damage recorded on 4th October 1944 when it suffered an engine failure on take off for a training flight and the then pilot was forced to make a crash landing at Forres.
Bernard Jones was born on 29th September 1918 in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia he enlisted into the RAAF in Melbourne on 27th May 1940. He was still serving with 78 Squadron on 7th September 1941 when Whitley Z6864 which he was flying crashed near Markington, Ripon. He and his crew were uninjured on this occasion. Small remains were located air historians Dick Barton, Albert Pritchard and Ken Reast in the late 1990s at the Markington site. He sustained injuries that prvented him flying for some months. He was posted to 1520 BAT Flight on 18th November 1941 to be a beam approach instructor but at that date was deemed unfit for flying duties. He is listed in their record book as still being unfit to fly on 31st January 1942 and on 8th February 1942 was posted to Holme on Spalding Moor for duties as a Control Pilot (possibly a ground role?). He later received a commission rising to F/Lt and survived the War being discharged on 28th September 1945.
John "Jack" Moorfoot was born on 12th May 1920 in Glanford, Norfolk. He joined 78 Squadron on 6th July 1941 and on 17th August 1941 he was the captain of Whitley Z6495 which landed at Middleton St.George's Q-site by mistake slightly damaging the aircraft. The location of this site is not yet known but may be inside Yorkshire and therefore should be included on my main Yorkshire related incidents. He received a commission on 18th December 1941 (114923) and on completing a Tour with 78 Squadron he was posted to Driffield as an instructor on the 1502 BAT Flight in February 1942. He was then posted to 1484 Flight on 15th August 1943 and was later Mentioned in Despatches on 14th January 1944 while in the rank of F/Lt. He was then posted to 1655 MTU on 17th January 1944. He survived the War and died at Norwich on 4th January 2000.
The wireless operator may have been a Stanley Beaton RAFVR (817076). If indeed he was the same person then he was recorded as missing on 5th February 1944 while serving with 502 Squadron in Coastal Command flying in Halifax HX175 which failed to return from a U-Boat patrol over the Bay of Biscay. I need to buy Maureen Fahey's book "Another Day, Another Airman" which details the loss of this aircraft and details each crew member. Warrant Officer Beaton was from Aberdeen and was 27 years old, he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.