Possibly Whitley force landed at an unknown location.

On a very well written "story" on the internet about the second pilot credited as being in this aircraft it states that on 31st August / 1st September 1941 this aircraft was flying Ops to Essen and the aircraft was damaged by flak.

Prior to him taking off part of the story states that "Derek and his crew boarded their Whitley at about 19.00hrs and waited in the gathering darkness as the bomber in front of them took off. It stalled as it failed to gain height and crashed in nearby woodland. Derek jumped down from his cockpit and ran towards the plane only to see it explode in front of him, killing all five crew members." This part of the story is total fabrication, this was Summer - it was not getting dark at 7PM, there was no crash at Topcliffe on this night, nor were there any deaths. The story then goes on to describe the aircraft being hit by flak three times, and then icing up on the return trip and landed safely. It could well be that the aircraft did sustain flak damage but no reference to any has yet been located in RAF source information. This actually highlights the problems I have in trying to accurately document air incidents when complete rubbish is being put on the internet. Derek Lord was later killed serving his country, getting correct facts right would perhaps do his service more justice than a nicely written story. My "research" is on going.

Pilot - Sgt Derek Rowland Lord RAFVR (1169117).