Spitfire P7839 near Bewholme.
During the morning of 3rd October 1941 this 610 Squadron aircraft was being flown on a formation flying exercise when the pilot made a diving turn too close to the ground. It was thought that the pilot probably misjudged the height at which he was flying when he begun the dive. He was pulling out of this dive but the aircraft was flying too fast and too low for this to be possible in the height remaining and the aircraft hit the ground at 11.45hrs near Bewholme Grange Farm, Bewholme, just south of Skipsea. The pilot unfortunately was killed.
Pilot - Sgt Andrew Albert Taylor RNZAF (NZ.402911), aged 21, of Wanganui, Wellington, New Zealand. Buried Leconfield Churchyard, Yorkshire.
Sgt Taylor (second left) and his gravestone in Leconfield Churchyard, Yorkshire. He was one of five boys and had a young son when he was
killed in this accident in Yorkshire. I thank his son Mr Andrew Taylor-Fairweather and other members of his family for their time and additional
information that they were kind enough to provide to this account and for the photograph of Sgt Taylor shown above.
He was posted to 610 Squadron on 5th September 1941 and joined "B-Flight". A page of his logbook was kindly supplied to me during correspondance
with his family and it gives details of a series of flights made in the days prior to his death in early October 1941. On 15th September 1941 he flew
three different aircraft, firstly on a "Gun Co-op Base", then later in the day a convoy patrol then a local flying exercise. The following day he flew
an attack training flight and then a formation exercise with other members of his squadron. After a day off, on 19th September 1941 he airtested a
Spitfire then later in the day flew a convoy patrol, the following day he flew in a formation exercise, on 21st Septembr 1941 he undertook two fighter
co-operation exercises with Halifax aircraft based at Linton on Ouse. On 22nd September 1941 he flew another formation exercise and later in the day
flew to Church Fenton and back. On 26th September 1941 he flew a further formation exercise and nothing more about his flying is currently known, he
flew most of these flights in the Spitfire coded "P".
In 2009 what was listed to be Sgt Andrew Taylor's medals were offered for sale on Ebay and the two photographs above show these medals. However, through
correspondance with Sgt Taylor's son it transpired that he still owns the medals. It is not known if this was an extra set somehow obtained by an
unknown member of his family. The purple ribbon cross appears genuine but the other three may not be part of his medal set but grouped together to
form a more saleable "set". One wonders if the person who won the auction knew of this.
Historians Eric Barton, Ken Reast and Albert Pritchard went with East Yorkshire aviation expert Rodney Robinson to locate the crash site in the late 1990's, after the efforts of Mr Robinson in seeking permission from the landowner. Small fragments of the aircraft were found at the site which confirmed the location and the photograph shown above depicts items retained by Eric that have since been passed to me to rehome.
This Spitfire was a presentation aircraft and carried the name of the donors, "City of Derry" after an appeal by the Belfast Telegraph newspaper raised enough money to pay for seventeen aircraft. Spitfire P7839 was built to contract B.981687/39/CB/23(c) by Vickers Armstrong's Ltd at Castle Bromwich. On 1st January 1941 it was flown into storage with 8 MU at Little Rissington and was then taken on charge by 74 Squadron on 5th March 1941 at Manston. It sustained repairable Cat.B/FB damage on Ops on 28th April 1941 and on 10th May 1941 it was transported to 1 CRU at Cowley for repair in works to be carried out. On 9th July 1941 it was taken on charge by 308 Squadron at Northolt then on 22nd July 1941 it transferred to 315 Squadron also at Northolt. On 11th September 1941 it was transferred to 610 Squadron at Leconfield but as a result of the accident near Bewholme on 3rd October 1941 Cat.E2/FA damage was recorded and the aircraft was written off.
