Whitley N1435 near Staxton Wold, Scarborough.
The crew on this 77 Squadron Whitley set out from Driffield airfield at 21.30hrs on 3rd August 1940 for a bombing raid on the Rhenania Ossag A.G. oil refinery at Mannheim, in the Ruhr Valley. On
their return on the following morning on approaching base at Driffield they found the area covered by thick fog and were unable to locate their aerodrome. At 06.50hrs the aircraft ran
low on fuel so a forced landing was carried out in a cornfield half a mile east of Staxton Wold RAF chain home station. The crew all escaped unhurt and the aircraft's captain
was later commended by his Commanding Officer "for landing his aircraft and saving his crew in such difficult and dangerous circumstances". The aircraft was assessed on site and Cat.M damage was recorded, it was later repaired to fly again.
Whitley N1435 was built to contract 75147/38 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd at Baginton and was awaiting collection on 19th November 1939. It was then placed into MU storage before being issued to 58 Squadron at Linton-on-Ouse in March 1940 when the unit began converting from Whitley MkIII's to MkV's. It was transferred to 77 Squadron at Driffield when the unit moved in
from Kinloss on 4th May 1940. It sustained Cat.M damage at Staxton Wold in the incident detailed above and was repaired on site and flown out back to base. It later transferred to RAE
Farnborough on an unknown date. The unit was transferred to AFE and used by them up to 15th February 1942 then it was transferred to 51 Squadron at Dishforth where it's role was to drop
paratroops. 51 Squadron transferred to Coastal Command on 6th May 1942 and the aircraft was transferred to AFEE at Sherburn-in-Elmet. From 2nd March 1944 to 16th October 1944 the aircraft
was attached to HGCU at North Luffenham. When this unit disbanded on 16th October 1944 the aircraft was placed in MU storage and eventually struck off charge on 19th December 1945 and
scrapped.
Pilot - F/O William Alan Stenhouse RAF (39904).
Second Pilot - P/O Robert Butler MacGregor RAF (41856).
Observer - Sgt Claude Lionel Geoffrey Hood RAFVR (746840).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt John Burrow RAF (551597).
Rear Gunner - Sgt Harold Davies RAF (632374).
Bobbie MacGregor's logbook page for this incident on Staxton Wold. This copy was kindly supplied to this account by his niece Mrs Bridget Scurfield. Bobbie MacGregor was born on 7th
April 1921 in Durban, South Africa to Robert and Carmel MacGregor. His father Robert was born in Aberdeen and his mother Carmel had been born in Australia. The family moved to Durban,
South Africa when Bobbie was six years old but the family later moved to Kenya. Robert MacGregor received his commission to the rank of Acting P/O on probation he was later graded as
P/O on probation 21st October 1939 and then confirmed in the rank of P/O on 23rd January 1940. I thank Mrs Scurfield for supplying these additional details.
Claude and Marian Hood (photo via the Leicester Mercury). Sgt Hood's flying career reads as follows. On 30th March 1939 he enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve for five
years. He was posted to 3 Civil Air Navigation School, later to Reserve Command, then to No.5 Bombing and Gunnery (B&G) School at RAF Jurby on the Isle of Man. He was awarded his Air
Observer's Badge in May 1940 and then posted to No.10 Operational Training Unit (OTU) at RAF Abingdon. In June 1940 he was posted to 77 Squadron at RAF Driffield in Yorkshire, then a
Whitley squadron in 4 Group, Bomber Command. My thanks to Mr Mark Hood, grandson of Claude Hood, for much of the information above.
William Stenhouse was born in Edinburgh in June 1912 and attended the George Watson's College from 1918 to 1930. He received a commission on 5th July 1937 to Acting P/O on probation
and was later confirmed in the rank and graded as P/O on 10th May 1938. He rose to F/O on 10th December 1939.
All of the airmen listed above were sadly killed just days after their landing at Staxton Wold, when, on 15th August 1940, Whitley P5044 struck barrage balloon cables over Eastleigh, Hampshire while their aircraft was making for base of Driffield after Ops to Bordeaux. All are buried locally at Fawley churchyard. The photograph showing some of their graves was found on the internet.
