Master W8525 at Brighouse, Leeds.
On 11th March 1942 the pilot of this aircraft was undertaking a transit flight from East Fortune down to Woodley airfield and appears to have taken a route down the side of the Pennines.
The pilot encountered bad weather in the Leeds area and resorted to flying at low level having no navigational aids. With the visibility worsening he attempted to force-land the aircraft in a small field but overshot the first field, and ran across a second, passed through two stone walls before it came to rest in a canal near Brighouse. The pilot was then taken to the home of a local buisnessman, Mr Knowles, whos family looked after him for a number of days until he was picked up and returned to his base. He built a relationship with the Knowles family
and often visited them later in the War when on leave.
Master W8525 was built to contract B.65589/40 by Philips & Powys at South Marston and was awaiting collection in May 1941. After a period of MU storage it was taken on charge by 60 OTU on 8th July 1941 and used by them until 13th February 1942 when it was declared Cat.B damaged following a major inspection. Prepared for a ferry flight to Woodley for repair was arranged and this was being made 11th March 1942 when it crashed near Brighouse. Cat.E/FA damage was the on site assessment and two days later it was recovered by 60 MU at Shipton by Benningborough and immediately struck off charge.
Pilot - P/O Wendel John August Nelson RCAF, of Pine County, Minnesota (or Freemont, Nebraska) USA.
Master W8525 after it had been pulled out of the canal.
Wendel Nelson enlisted into the RCAF on 13th August 1940, after training in Canada he left for the UK in September 1941. The pilot's full life story was published in
"Flypast" Magazine in June and July 2009 but the local Leeds paper ran an article about the Brighouse incident in 2006. After his time at 60 OTU he flew with 600 Squadron
and later 6 Squadron in North Africa. In 1943 he was granted leave to return home to see the son he had never met. He resigned his commission in the RCAF in 1944 and
transferred to the USAAF. After conversion training he took a posting back to the UK and to Martlesham Heath where he flew Thunderbolts and later Mustangs. On 13th January
1945 he was the pilot of Mustang 42-15365, the aircraft spun out of low cloud into the ground near his base. He was killed instantly and intially buried in the UK, probably
at Madingley or Brookwood, but his body was returned home and he now rests in Ridge cemetery, Fremont, Nebraska, USA.
