Lysander V9434 near Walkington.
On 18th September 1941 this 613 Squadron aircraft was being flown on an army co-operation exercise. During these exercises it was common to fly very low, during this flight and while flying towards a late-evening sun, the aircraft struck high tension electricity cables in the Beverley area. This flipped the aircraft onto it's back and it crashed upside down in a field near to Butt Farm, around a mile east of Walkington. Butt Farm was the site of an Anti-Aircraft Battery and it is highly likely that the co-operation flight was with the battery personnel. Sadly the two airmen on board were killed.
Lysander V9434 was built to contract B.54504/39 by The Westland Aircraft Co. Ltd. at Yeovil and was awaiting collection in July 1941, it was
taken on charge by 613 Squadron at Doncaster later the same month and as a result of the accident near Beverley on 18th September 1941 Cat.E2/FA damage was recorded.
Pilot - P/O Ronald Ian Millar RAFVR (88233), aged 22. Buried Rose Hill Cemetery, Doncaster, Yorkshire.
Air Gunner - F/Sgt Alexander Clark Letham RAFVR (968135), aged 20, of Alloa. Buried Sunnyside Cemetery, Alloa, Scotland.
Ronald Millar attended Craigflower School, of Torryburn, Scotland as a boy. He received a commission on 16th November 1940 to the rank of P/O
on probation.
I credit Steve Walford with researching the crash location, all previous attempts I had made only put the site as in the general Beverley area. The wires the aircraft would have struck would presumably have been one of two that run close to Butt Farm and roughly beside the modern A1079 road.