On the night of 26th / 27th November 1943 the crew of this 619 Squadron aircraft took off from Woodhall Spa airfield at 17.10hrs to undertake an operational flight to bomb Berlin. On their return to the UK the weather and visibility over Lincolnshire was very poor and numerous Lincolnshire-based squadrons instructed their returning aircraft to divert north to land in Yorkshire after a few crashes in Lincolnshire around midnight. The visibility over Yorkshire was not much better and a number of Lancasters would crash before they could land including at least three from 619 Squadron. The crew of DV336 arrived over Elvington with the weather poor, they made two attempts at landing at Elvington and the second was made on completely the wrong line and at low altitude. The pilot then opened up the throttles to try and fly another circuit of the airfield but as a turn to the left was made the aircraft lost height and crashed at around 01.50hrs near Noah's Ark Farm, between Elvington and Wheldrake. There appears to have a large bomb or bombs still on board when it crashed as witnesses stated that the hole made by the crashing aircraft was "as big as a house". Sadly all seven airmen were killed; the bodies of five were recovered while two of the crew were never found and are commemorated on the Runnnymede Memorial. This was a rare event for air accidents in Yorkshire; there were very few members of aircrew whose bodies were never found as a result of air accidents in Yorkshire. An investigation believed that fatigue of the crew was probably the reason why the aircraft crashed, it had been in the air for over eight and a half hours flying through poor weather for the length of the flight.
Pilot - P/O Kenneth James Mears RAFVR (156086), aged 22, of Teddington. Buried Teddington Cemetery, Middlesex.
Navigator? - P/O Gordon Geoffrey Salt RAFVR (149344), aged 30, of Epsom, Surrey. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Bomb Aimer? - Sgt Derek Webb Blundell RAFVR (967176), aged 26, of Belfast. Commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
Air Gunner - F/Sgt Walter William Nelson Knights RAAF (30159), aged 21, of West Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner? - Sgt Aubrey Ralph Wilcher RAFVR (1312013), aged 31, of Didcot, Berkshire. Commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
Air Gunner - F/Sgt Harry Vincent Birch RAFVR (1284262), aged 20, of Walham Green. Buried Brompton Cemetery, London.
Flight Engineer - F/Sgt Leslie Pearse RAF (574692), aged 20, of Dovercourt Bay, Essex. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Graves of three of the crew who were buried in Harrogate.
Walter Knights born 6th February 1922 in Hobart and was the son of Walter Nelson (Snr) and Peni Isabel Knights. He enlisted for RAAF service in Hobart.
Gordon Salt received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 2nd June 1943.
Kenneth Mears received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 21st August 1943.
Air historians Eric Barton, Albert Pritchard and Ken Reast gained permission from the landowner and located the surface fragments at the crash site in August 2009 which technically confirmed the resting place of the two members of the crew never found as a result of the crash. The photograph shown above was taken by Eric and shows the area of their field walking finds.