Whitley N1379 at Dishforth airfield.
On the night of 25th / 26th March 1940 102 Squadron were to supply six aircraft on a reconnaissance flight of German airfields and industrial locations of the Ruhr Valley. Five aircraft took off from Driffield between 20.00hrs and 20.48hrs but before the sixth could get into the air the operational order was cancelled. Of the five that got into the air three received wireless messages telling them that they were to return land, of those three that were recalled two landed at Linton on Ouse and one landed at Dishforth. Whitley N1379 was the aircraft that landed at Dishforth at 00.10hrs on 26th March 1940 but it came into land too fast with little wind to slow them and it overshot on landing. The pilot braked hard to avoid running through the boundary hedge beside the Thirsk to Boroughbridge road but this caused the aircraft to swing and the starboard wing struck the hedge. It seems likely that an undercarriage leg may also have collapsed as the incident is recorded in police records as crashing near Dishforth and blocking the Thirsk to Boroughbridge road with the crew reported as being uninjured. Unfortunately the squadron records only listed the incident in passing in the records and did not list the aircraft or the crew in the operational sorties section, probably because they did not carry out any operational sortie.
Pilot - S/Ldr Roland Gustave Harman RAF (29092).
Crew - Names unknown.
Whitley N1379 was built to contract 75147/38 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd at Baginton and issued to 102 Squadron at Driffield in October 1939. Following the incident detailed
above Cat.M(c)/FA damage was recorded after inspection. It was repaired on site at Dishforth and returned to Driffield but possibly having transferred to 77 Squadron. It survived
the enemy air raid on Driffield airfield on 15th August 1940 and moved with the unit to Linton on Ouse on 28th August 1940 and then to Topcliffe 5th October 1940. On an unknown
date in 1941 it transferred to 19 OTU at Kinloss and was destroyed in a crash on 26th June 1941 with Cat.W/FA (Burnt) damage recorded, after it crashed near Kinloss Railway Station
with six airmen being killed on that occasion. The photograph above shows Whitley N1379 in flight, photograph via Mr Jim Rutland.
Roland Harman appears to have been in the RAF as far back as 1930 when he was appointed to a Commission to the rank of P/O. He was posted to 25 Squadron at Hawkinge on 23rd June 1931 and rose to
F/O on 27th January 1932. He was posted to 2 FTS at Digby on 22nd October 1934 and then later to 7 FTS at Peterborough on 16th December 1935. He rose to F/Lt on 27th January
1936 and to S/Ldr on 1st October 1938. He was awarded the DFC on 13th September 1940, and Mentioned in Despatches on 1st January 1941. He was later appointed to Group Captain in January 1944. He was the pilot of Whitley N1383 which was slightly damaged at Driffield on 17th December 1939 (detailed on this website).
