Halifax JD320 near Skipwith.
On 25th July 1943 this 77 Squadron Halifax took off from Elvington at 22.30hrs with the crew to set course for an operational flight to bomb Essen. Soon after taking off both the starboard engines failed and it was thought that the pilot was trying to land the aircraft in a cornfield but struck trees just prior to crash landing at 22.40hrs around two miles north of Skipwith. The crew were lucky, they survived but the aircraft caught fire and was destroyed. The squadron records state that the crew were assisted from the aircraft by members of an anti-aircraft unit that was in the immediate area of the crash. The crew are believed to have escaped with only minor injuries although one of the crew could well have sustained injuries that cut short his flying, detailed below.
Pilot - Sgt Dennis Arthur Robert King RAAF (416684).
Second Pilot - Sgt Thomas William Hill RAFVR (1048306).
Flight Engineer - Sgt Arnold Richard Downes RAFVR (1464831).
Navigator - Sgt A J Birch (Possibly Sgt Arthur John Birch RAFVR (1433328)).
Bomb Aimer - F/O George Albert Renshaw RAFVR (129484).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Thomas William Elwood Terry RAFVR (1029668).
Air Gunner - Sgt Charles William George Graham RAFVR (1377569).
Air Gunner - Sgt Dennis Frank Holway RAFVR (813075).
Eric Barton, Albert Pritchard and Ken Reast located a crash site near Mill Cottage, Thorganby with permission from the landowner in September 2007 which they believed was Halifax JD320. Eric spent a long time in the locality tracking down elderly witnesses to the many incidents in this general area. While my older information suggests the site was near Skipwith, the AM Form 1180 for JD320 states it crashed some two miles north of Skipwith. The location of the wreckage found by Eric is more like 3+ miles north of Skipwith but where this site is located it's hard to see why Skipwith was used as a reference point when Thorganby is far closer. Even if it crashed two miles north of Skipwith then Thorganby would still make a better reference point. The two photographs shown here are both Erics and show the Mill Cottage, Thorganby site with associated finds. In paperwork of Erics he also has Halifax JD320 and Halifax LL544 as crashing both at Wake House (a mile or so north of Skipwith and at a location that fits perfectly with the location given on the AM Form 1180 for LL544). The problem I have is if JD320 didn't crash at Mill Cottage then what did!! Eric said that he found parts at Mill Cottage that bore makers inspection stamps from English Electric and JD320 was built by them.
Arnold Downes was born in Hackney, London in 1920, he was sadly killed flying in 77 Squadron Halifax JD465 on 24th August 1943 when the aircraft crashed near Biesenthal on Ops to Berlin.
Charles Graham received a commission on 7th January 1944 to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency). He was lost without trace on 20th February 1944 when Halifax LL143 never returned from Ops to Leipzig. He was thirty three years old.
George Renshaw received a commission on 18th September 1942 to P/O on probation (emergency), rising to F/O on probation (war subs) on 19th March 1943 and F/Lt (war subs) on 17th September 1944. He relinquished his rank of F/Lt on 13th July 1945 on the grounds of medical unfitness. He could well have sustained injuries in the accident to JD320 as recorded above and having not regained fitness to continue his RAF service his commission was relinquished.
Dennis Holway was born in Taunton, Somerset in 1918. He received a commission on 8th August 1944 to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency), rising to F/O (war subs) on 8th February 1945. He married in Bristol in 1946 and died in Bath in 1971.
Thomas Hill received a commission in December 1943. P/O Hill (169912) was killed on 22nd January 1944 flying with 35 Squadron. He is buried in Berlin War Cemetery. He was almost certainly not F/Sgt Thomas William Hill RAFVR (1040830) who I had previous suggested was on board Halifax JD320 when it crashed near Skipwith. I thank his grandson-in-law, Mr David Sankey, for contacting me in December 2011.
