Spitfire W3839 near North Otterington.
During the afternoon of 17th February 1943 three pilots of 401 Squadron were instructed to undertake a formation flying exercise. At 13.55hrs all three Spitfires took off from Catterick. Two of the pilots were Canadians while the third was a Polish pilot; W3839 was flown by F/Sgt Leonard Gilis PAF, BM346 was flown by WO1 Harvey Muirhead RCAF and the third W3941 P/O Arthur Christian Bishop RCAF. The pilots must have then immediately climbed away and begun their training exercise once above a layer of cloud at around 2-3,000 feet. A short time later they had reached around 6,000 feet and at 14.01hrs they were flying in formation in the general area around Northallerton. Gilis appears to have been leading the formation with Muirhead and Bishop flying in formation behind, Muirhead was not flying straight and level but was seen by P/O Bishop to be weaving when Gilis made a tight turn, this turn would have taken Gilis across the path of Muirhead and with Muirhead weaving he did not have time to avoid a collision. P/O Bishop saw both Spitfires go into spins but lost sight of them when they disappeared into the cloud base at 2-3,000 feet. Both aircraft dived into fields south of Northallerton. W3839 crashed near Stubb House, North Otterington while Spitfire BM346 crashed at the other side of the main York-Edinburgh railway line near Thornton House, Thornton le Beans. The third pilot undertaking the exercise made a radio transmission immediately after the collision and immediately returned to land at Catterick.
A crash party was despatched to locate the remains of both aeroplanes, this was done but the bodies of either pilot could not be found in the parts of the aeroplanes that were found above ground. The following day RAF Regiment parties began digging operations at both crash sites to attempt to recover the bodies of the pilots, owing to the soft nature of the ground and the depths both went to this was very difficult. The 401 Squadron records state that the body of WO1 Muirhead was recovered on 19th February 1943 but I have my doubts as to how much of his body was recovered. Work carried on until 21st February 1943 to attempt to recover Leonard Gilis' body but this was eventually abandoned owing to the soft ground making it an impossible task with the tools available to them at that date in time. The squadron records suggest depths of between fifteen and eighteen feet had to be reached and this was not possible. The body of F/Sgt Leonard Gilis was unable to be recovered so was recorded as "missing".
Jumping forward in time some thirty-plus years, the site where Spitfire W3839 crashed was dug with a mechanical digger though I have am not permitted to name who was responsible. The engine
from this aircraft was recovered and was eventually placed on display at an antique centre in Lancashire until around 2020.
Pilot - F/Sgt Leonard Gilis PAF (P/793791), aged 28. Still listed as missing.
Leonard Gilis was born on 27th January 1915 in part of Poland which is now in Belarus. I have only traced his flying for the months up to his death. He attended Course 23, at 58
Operational Training Unit, at Grangemouth in June 1942. By late September 1942 he was with 317 Squadron when they were based at Woodvale and was possibly posted to them just after they
arrived from Northolt. On 24th September 1942 he overshot on landing at Woodvale after a training flight, ran into soft ground and his aircraft tipped up onto its nose. He was posted to
403 Squadron on 29th October 1942 who were at Catterick. He is listed as being posted from 403 Squadron to 401 Squadron (also at Catterick) in late January 1943. The squadrons appear
to have exchanged some pilots around this period, although the 403 Squadron record book gives the date he went as being 23rd January 1943 while the 401 Squadron record book gives the date as 26th January 1943.
The third pilot on this exercise was Arthur Christian William Avery Bishop. He was the son of Air Marshal William Avery "Billy" Bishop VC, CB, DSO and Bar, MC, DFC.
Knowing the history of this incident, historians Albert Pritchard, Eric Barton and Ken Reast did a small-scale field walk and located small fragments on the surface at the crash
site in May 1999 with permission from the landowner to confirm the location of the site and also the location of this pilot's resting place. Eric retained a few of these small pieces. One of
the pieces shows a good example of a Spitfire part number, as shown below. Using this information the site has had a MoD geophysical survey done which has made sure the location has been
accurately recorded and surveyed with modern techniques.
Spitfire W3839 was built to contract B.19713/39 by Vickers Armstrong's (Supermarine) Ltd. at Eastleigh and was first test flown on 5th September 1941. Two days later it was flown to 45 M.U. at Kinloss and was then taken on charge by 611 Squadron at Hornchurch on 2nd October 1941. It was then transferred to 64 Squadron, also at Hornchurch, on 14th November 1941. On 14th March 1942 it was taken to A.S.T. Ltd. at Hamble for either an unspecified repair or modifications. On 20th August 1942 it was taken on charge by 403 Squadron at Catterick. It then moved with 403 Squadron to Kenley on 2nd October 1942 and back to Catterick on 10th October 1942. On 23rd January 1943 it was transferred to 410 Squadron at Catterick when 403 Squadron left for Kenley and 401 Squadron moved in to Catterick. As a result of the crash on 17th February 1943 Cat.E2/FA damage was the damage assessment and it was struck off charge having flown just less than 300 hours flying time. Spitfire W3839 was a presentation aircraft and carried the name "Kettering District".
