Explosion near Harome.

Exactly what occurred near Harome is not confirmed. At 22.30hrs Wombleton airfield personnel reported a "large flash and colossal explosion, fairly near". Local Royal Observer Corp posts also reported the incident as being to the south of Wombleton. At 00.15hrs the next morning an entry in No.6 Group flying control log recorded an update as being a "flash and explosion, while very great were of very short duration and all efforts to locate it have proved fruitless". By 17.00hrs on 1st April 1944 it was acertained to have been seen and heard by people at Wombleton, East Moor and other airfields in the locality but that no reports of bomb damage were reported. Wombleton report that pieces of a bomb, thought to be a photo flash have been found at Harome. All No.6 Group airfields were asked to report whether operational aircraft had lost bomb or bombs at 22.22hrs (which must have been the exact time the incident was observed). Croft reported that one of their aircraft had one photo flash fail on the target but no others. Linton, Leeming, Skipton, Middleton St. George, East Moor, Tholthorpe and Croft all responded to state the incident was not caused by one of their aeroplanes.

It was probably a photoflash that fell from an aircraft and exploded, possibly in the air or possibly on hitting the ground between Harome and what is now Summerfield Farm, on the Nunnington road. I make a webpage on this incident and will update as I locate more information.