Master W8595 in Hull.
On 4th December 1941 the pilot of this aircraft flying in the Hull area when the aircraft struck a barrage balloon belonging to No.17 Balloon Centre ran
by RAF Sutton on Hull. The balloon was situated on Site 51 (in Norfolk Street). The pilot was able to bale out before the aircraft crashed into the garden
of a house in Dover Street in the Stepney District of Hull and set at least three already bomb-damaged houses on fire and all three along with the aircraft
were destroyed. The Hull Mail newspaper detailed this incident at the time but the scan on the microfilm in Hull history centre is very poor and nearly
unreadable. There is a reference to witnesses seeing two airmen parachuting from the aircraft and landing safely and their being several civilians being
slightly injured as a result of the incident.
The pilot gave a detailed account to the website "www.17balloons.co.uk" in which he gives extra details of this incident. He was an instructor with
59 OTU at Crosby on Eden, near Carlisle and the previous day had flown a direct route over the Pennines to Sutton Bridge in good weather. The day of
the accident he was to make the return flight but the weather had turned poor after taking off, he had initially headed for the same but the reverse
route over the Pennines he had previously flown, he had also planned a secondary route should the weather become bad, this would take him back over
to the coast near Hull then up the coast and eventually over to Scotch Corner to follow the road and railway line through to Brough.
Before he got to the Pennine range the cloudy conditions got gradually worse, he opted for the coastal route but as he made for the east coast and
with the ground not visible the wing of the aircraft hit something, this turned out to be a barrage balloon cable. With the aircraft entering a spin
the pilot bailed out. He estimated that the base of the cloud to be around five hundred feet when he dropped out of it. He landed on a peice of flat
ground amongst the bombed-out part of the city of Hull and was uninjured. He was later shown the crash site, in the garden of a house of which the
row of houses were already bombed beyond inhabitance. He returned to Crosby by train where he arrived at 21.30hrs.
Pilot - F/Sgt Frank Horace Raymond "Ray" Hulbert RAFVR (742801).
Ray Hulbert joined RAFVR in 1939 and was called up in August 1939 joining 601 Squadron. He served with 601 Squadron during the Battle of
Britain and was posted to instruct with 59 OTU when the incident at Hull occurred. He was later commissioned to P/O on probation (emergency)
on 6th May 1942 and was posted to 193 Squadron to fly Typhoons. As Acting F/Lt he was awarded the AFC (Gazetted on 2nd June 1943). He later
commanded 10 Group Communications Squadron and then became Chief instructor at No.3 Air Practice Squadron at Hawkinge. In November 1945 he
left the regular RAF and joined the Reserve in 1948 and served until reliquishing his commission in March 1961. He lived in retirement in
Sutton Coldfield until his death in September 2004, aged 86. The photograph shown above was found on the www.17balloons.co.uk website.
