On 10th January 1946 the crew on board this Mosquito were undertaking a night time training flight over Northern England with No.54 Operational Training Unit. Two and a half hours into the flight, at 20,00hrs, the aircraft flew into high ground at 1,900 feet above sea level to the west of Keld. Sadly both men in the aircraft were killed and the wreckage of the aircraft was found spread over a wide area of moorland at the head of Swaledale. It was assumed that as no technical defect was found with the aircraft or any other logical explanation as to why the aircraft had crashed that the aircraft was simply not flying high enough over an area of high ground.
Pilot - F/Lt Thomas Abel Roskilly RAFVR (136211), aged 23. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Navigator / Radar Operator - F/Sgt Sydney Arthur Whiting RAFVR (1630314), aged 22. Buried Charlton Cemetery, Greenwich, London.
Thomas Roskilly was born on 16th February 1922 at Tavistock, Devon. He received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) on 16th January 1943 and was promoted to F/O on probation (war subs) on 16th July 1943 and later to F/Lt. He was awarded the King's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air, Gazetted on 3rd April 1945 for service in the Rhodesian Air Training Group. At his death he was converting to the Mosquito type and had amassed over 1500 hours flying time. His name is commemorated on the Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford War Memorial while he is buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery.
Sydney Whiting was born on 23rd April 1923 in Greenwich, London to Harold Percy and Alice Beatrice Whiting of Charlton. He enlisted into the RAFVR on 26th June 1942 and went down the route of training as a navigator. After training at 1 E.A.N.S. he was posted to 9 A.O.S in Canada and on his return to Britain posted to 62 OTU to train as a radar operator to fly as part of the night-fighter force. He was posted to 54 OTU on 29th May 1945 just before 62 OTU disbanded and arrived at East Moor when they moved in at the start of November 1945 where he remained until his death.
My wife and I visited the site in October 2006, the remains of the aircraft are spread over a wide area. The photo above shows the area close to where the aircraft crashed and the RAF buried most of what would not burn in a natural water run-off in the moorland.
The photo above shows a large panel from this Mosquito by the side of a drystone wall some distance from the crash site, photographed in 2006.
This photograph shows where I believe the RAF dragged the remaining wreckage that was not required to be taken away and where it was then burnt, the area is covered with tiny fragments of the aircraft but is some distance from the gully where the larger sections remain and where the aircraft must have crashed.
This photograph shows what remained at the site in 1976 during one of historian and author Nick Roberts' visits.
Mosquito NT544 was built by De Havilland at Leavesden and was delivered as new to 218 M.U. on 15th March 1945. The aircraft was taken on charge by 406 Squadron on 3rd April 1945 but transferred to 54 O.T.U. on 5th September 1945. As a result of the crash on 10th January 1946 Cat.E/FA damage was the damage assessment and the aircraft was struck off charge on 23rd January 1946.