Harrow K6995 near Tibthorpe.
On the night of 4th / 5th April 1938 this 75 Squadron aircraft was one of two that took off from Driffield airfield at 18.25hrs to undertake a night cross country training flight involving a flight down to the south coast and back. The flight would be between 700 and 800 miles in total. All appears to have gone without incident for much of the flight and both Harrows appear to have been flying the same route and probably together. At 00.25hrs the wireless operator of Harrow K6995 transmitted a message to Driffield to say they were over Hull and there was heavy ground fog. Just after 01.00hrs another message was received to say that they were nearing base and that the wireless operator was reeling in the aerial cable as they prepared to land. This was the last that was heard of the aircraft. Soon after this time the other Harrow landed at Driffield without incident. With Harrow K6995 then reported overdue various searches began. Aircraft were sent into the air and a land search involving driving around the roads was made but this yielded nothing. At 07.00hrs a local man driving between Hull and Tibthorpe noticed wreckage of an aircraft near Tipthorpe Low Wood and raised the alarm, after driving home he telephoned the RAF at Driffield while his son went to the crash site to await the RAF arriving. It was found that the aircraft had crashed into a field and partly disintergrated. All five airmen on board were sadly killed. I have not been able to confirm who held which position in the aircraft, the airmen's inquest stated that there was a pilot, navigator, wireless operator and two air gunners while the squadron records state it carried two pilots.
Pilot - F/Sgt Edward James Merchant RAF (560185), aged 28, of Regent's Park, London. Buried St.Pancreas Cemetery, London.
? - Sgt Ronald George Cowley Marshall RAF (564231), aged 23, of Richmond, Yorkshire. Buried Hipswell Churchyard, Yorkshire.
? - Cpl Walter Greaves RAF (507414), aged 29, of St.John's Chapel, Durham. Burial St.John the Baptist Church, St.John's Chapel, Durham.
Wireless Operator - AC1 Ronald Herbert Fish RAF (550326), aged 19. Of Norton (then East Riding of Yorkshire). Buried Norton Cemetery, Yorkshire
? - LAC George Jeffrey Humphries RAF (561722), aged 26, of Maidstone, Kent. Buried Maidstone Cemetery, Kent.
Ronald Fish's grave in Norton Cemetery. I would class him as being one of the local casualties to where I live. He was the son of Herbert and Fish, of Vine Grove, Norton and attended Malton Grammar School prior to joining the RAF and attending the Electrical and Wireless School at Cranwell. The RAF provided three aircraft from Driffield as a flypast at his funeral.
Ronald Marshall's grave at Hipswell.
Walter Greaves lost his father in March 1918 in France. He was due to marry in July 1938.
Historians Eric Barton, Ken Reast and Albert Pritchard located small fragments of the aircraft on the surface in the field in February 2001 with permission from the landowner confirming the crash location. A jet would crash in the next field in the 1950s but the item shown in the photograph below would likely to have come from this Handley Page Harrow and the "HP" shown on the part likely refers to Handley Page.
