Unidentified Oxford near Grindale.
Paul Bright's book "Air War Over East Yorkshire in WW2" details this incident in full and I would direct anyone with an interest in this incident or the general subject to Paul's book as it is superb. Without copying his research I need to give the basic details on here to complete my record. On 16th January 1944 this aircraft was used by a pilot of No.1 Group Pool to fly more senior officers from Lindholme to the south-west of England and with the pilot to then return to Lindholme. The destination was meant to have been St.Eval but before take off word was received that that airfield was fog bound so they would need to land at Weston-super-Mere instead. The outbound leg of the flight went without incident, the pilot had lunch in Somerset then set off to return to Lindholme. Unfortunately the visibility on the flight north was poor with fog present and his navigation and radio equipment failed. Running low on fuel he found a gap in the clouds near Bempton and made a landing in a grass field near Grindale narrowly avoiding anti-invasion concrete blocks in the field. The aircraft came to a stop with remarkably no damage near East Leys Farm. On 22nd January 1944 the pilot was given the job of flying the aircraft out of the field.
Pilot - F/Lt Peter French RAF.