During the morning of 31st July 1943 the crew of this aircraft were undertaking a day time training flight. Full details surrounding this incident are not known but just over five hours into the flight and at 13.15hrs a forced landing was made near Garnthwaite farm, near Scargill, Bowes when the aircraft ran out of fuel. I make the assumption that the weather was poor at the time and that the crew made become lost while flying in cloud and eventually ran out of fuel. This incident is mentioned in a basic police record which stated that the aircraft sustained damage to the tail section and also wheel and axle damage suggesting the landing was made with the wheels down. The aircraft must have been repaired. The crew of two were not injured. It is possible that the second un-named person was the pilot's regular navigator after his later posting to 603 Squadron.
Pilot - Sgt Eric Geoffrey Harman RAFVR (658350).
Navigator / Radar Operator - Name unknown.
Eric Harman was the son of James David and Millicent Grace Harman and was born in Middlesbrough in 1920. In the 1921 census the family were living in Redcar. His father was born at Great Yarmouth and his mother at Burton on Trent. His mother later moved to Newcastle-on-Tyne. He received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) on 16th April 1944 (176887). By May 1944 he had been posted to 603 Squadron and on 15th May 1944 he was flying a Beaufighter on an operational patrol off Greece when the aircraft was shot down by flak. Both he and his navigator / wireless operator F/Sgt Leslie Elwyn Hopkin RAFVR (1412309) were killed. P/O Harman is buried at Phaleron War Cemetery, Greece and was twenty nine years old.