Spitfire AA972 near Warlaby.
During a training flight made in the morning of 15th March 1942 this 122 Squadron aircraft suffered a glycol leak within the engine. The leak almost certainly saw the engine overheat and fail, and possibly the leaking glycol caught fire. Unable to fly back to land at his base at Scorton and while suffering the effects of breathing in glycol fumes the pilot attempted a forced landing at 10.00hrs in a field near what was then Warlaby Grange. Unfortunately as the aircraft was about to land one of the wing tips struck a tree and it was further damaged. The location given on a police report plots to the edge of a small piece of woodland that existed around Low Sober Farm (Low Sowber on the wartime map). This woodland has ince been removed, and Warlaby Grange and the nearby Warlaby Parsonage have since been demolished.
Pilot - Sgt James Fabling Booth RAF (338700).