The photograph above shows Whitley P4962 in the field near Appleton le Street.

The same field in 2009 and probably the crash site, though perhaps I am slightly too high up the field.

This group photograph of 77 Squadron aircrew shows at least two of those named above. Douglas Robert Bagnall is shown on the bottom row, third from left. Antony Akroyd-Stuart is probably the pilot shown on the front row, far right.

Douglas Robert Bagnall was known by his second name, he was granted a short service commission in the RAF as Acting P/O on probation on 23rd March 1940. On the night of 23rd / 24th November 1940 he was the captain of Whitley T4160 tasked along with five other 77 Squadron aircraft and four 102 Squadron aircraft with bombing the Royal Arsenal, Turin. Having flown a staging flight to re-fuel at Horsham St.Faith in Norfolk they set out on the long flight to Italy. The raid does not appear to have been a success with his aircraft and others not landing safely when they returned. He later recorded his memories of this flight and believed that incorrectly forecast weather and specifically wind resulted in them probably drifting off course, they spent a long time trying to identify a target eventually dropping their bombs on fires from previously dropped bombs possibly in Genoa. They made a rough calculation of where they might be and plotted a course back to England. On the return leg and while flying over The Alps the aircraft developed a problem with the airscrew pitch control on one engine, this sped the engine up and would have used more fuel so they slowed the aircraft down to try to save fuel. This problem combined with the distance to Italy and spending time searching for a target resulted in them being low on fuel as they crossed France. Still not sure of their exact position and with fuel running low after crossing what they thought was the French coast they transmitted signals to state they were probably gong to ditch. The aircraft eventually ran out of fuel and on spotting two boats below P/O Bagnall ditched near them having first instructed his crew to the back of the aircraft to then launch the dinghy when the aircraft came to a stop. The ditching was successful but when P/O Bagnall climbed out of the cockpit and along the top of the aircraft down to the where he expected the crew to have launched and be climbing into the dinghy there was no dinghy. As the Whitley was sinking fast the crew left the aircraft and went into the water and this was the last Bagnall saw of the rest of his crew. He attracted the attention of the boats by torch and was he eventually dragged on board by their crew. Although the two boats spent some time searching for his crew no trace was ever found of them and they are all commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. It later transpired the aircraft ditched only a few miles off the English coast, believed to have been in the Straits of Dover.

P/O Bagnall returned to operational flying and flew his next as captain on 7th December 1940. He was awarded the DFC for service with 77 Squadron, Gazetted on 6th June 1941. He was graded as P/O on probation on 13th July 1940 and promoted to F/O (War subs) on 13th July 1941 and F/Lt (war subs) on 13th July 1942. After finishing a Tour with 77 Squadron he later (probably) served in Transport Command and served in North Africa. He survived a forced landing in the Atlas Mountains area and the aircraft was later flown out after a strip was created to allow a take off run. He survived a fourth serious accident but the details surrounding it are not known, believed to have been while flying a large aircraft and while landing it crashed with the possibly deaths of a number of the crew. Little is yet known about this incident. He was transferred to the RAFO and called up for service on 11th September 1943 but relinquished his commission on appointment to the RNZAF on 1st January 1944 while in the rank of F/Lt. He survived two other accidents before leaving the RNZAF just before the Korean War. He was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand in October 1910 and died in Auckland in October 1996. I thank his son for contacting me in September 2014.

Antony Charles Letteblere Akroyd-Stuart (or incorrectly spelt "ACkroyd-Stuart" in many places) was probably born in Halifax, Yorkshire but it is possible that his family moved to Australia when he was young. He was granted a commission in the General Duties Branch of the RAFVR on 13th September 1938 as P/O but transferred to the RAF on 7th October 1939 though his seniority of P/O was then back dated to 7th July 1939. He was promoted to F/O on 7th April 1940 with seniority back dated to 7th January 1940 and rose to F/Lt exactly a year later with the same back dated seniority. He was promoted to S/Ldr (temp) on 1st March 1942 and later confirmed in the S/Ldr rank. Following the incident at Appleton le Street little more is known about him other than he is listed elsewhere on the internet as commanding 34 EFTS on 14th August 1941, and on this date the Duke of Kent inspected the Medicine Hat base in Canada. Although under research I suspect he completed a Tour with 77 Squadron and took a posting in Canada. Having spent time instructing it then appears likely that he volunteered for further service in the UK following this period in Canada and returned to the UK and begun a second Tour after transferring back to the RAFVR. He then served with 76 Squadron but was sadly killed on 31st August 1943 when Halifax DK207 (carrying nose art of "Saint the Second") was shot down by a night fighter and crashed in Holland. Five of the crew including him were killed and two others were made PoW. S/Ldr Akroyd-Stuart was twenty six years old.

The Akroyd-Stuart Prize given by the Royal Aeronautical Society is likely to have been created in memory of the pilot's Uncle who invented the "Hornsby-Akroyd Patent Oil Engine", this was an engine which worked similar to that of the diesel engine and there were patent issues between the two companies involved. Although Diesel is credited and thus the famous name it was probably Akroyd-Stuart who invented the type of engine. It was the pilot's father along with this brother, who, on moving to Australia set up the Sanders & Stuart company.

Sgt Albert Hammond was involved in a number of incidents. He survived the crash of Whitley T4138 on the North Yorkshire Moors on 15th December 1940 and after converting to Halifaxes and transferring to 35 Squadron he survived Halifax L9498 crashing at Linton on Ouse in June 1941. F/Sgt Albert Hammond was killed on 9th July 1941 when Halifax L9521 was shot down over The Netherlands, the aircraft sadly crashed onto a house killing three crew and four people in the house. He is buried at Uden War Cemetery, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands.