Wellington LN487 near Askham Bryan.

At around 18.00hrs on 21st January 1944 the crew of this 15 Operational Training Unit aircraft took off from Harwell airfield to undertake a night time cross country training flight. While over Yorkshire at 15,000 feet the aircraft went into a uncontrolled dive from which the pilot was only just able to regain control and pull the aircraft level again. Believing the aircraft was suffering from engine failure the crew made a "darky" request to receive assistance to land at the nearest airfield and East Moor flying control responded. It was presumed that because the funnel lighting at Rufforth airfield was lit the pilot of the Wellington had mistaken these lights for that of East Moor and had made an approach to land there. Unfortunately the aircraft lost height and a forced landing was made at 19.15hrs near a search light battery at Askham Bryan. The aircraft crashed through some small trees before coming to rest in a field. The impact with the trees broke off the starboard engine and wing tip and then most of the port wing with the port engine broke off then crashed into a field, as it swung around the rear gunner was thrown from his turret. The fuselage was also broken in three by the time it came to rest. The accident records state that the pilot may have thought that the engines had failed when it was actually it was the air speed indicator that had failed, after investigating the failure it was found that the air speed indicator was fitted incorrectly and the fitter was held to blame. As the air speed indicator was not working the pilot would not know how fast the aircraft was flying. It seems likely that just prior to the aircraft diving out of control it seems probable that the flying speed was so slow that it had stalled. Despite the aircraft appearing to be damaged beyond repair it was assessed as baing Cat.B and was taken away for repair. After this incident the wireless operator, W/O Cohen, left this crew and was replaced. Allen, Phillips, Dudley and Wooldridge were posted to 578 Squadron on 30th April 1944 probably from 1658 H.C.U.

An account of this incident is given in Martin Bowman's book "Flying into the Flames of Hell". While he does not list the crew by full name his account seems to suggest there were seven on board this aircraft at the time and this included a flight engineer, Sgt Stobbs (but O.T.U. Wellingtons did not carry flight engineers) and a second air gunner, Sgt Dunton (which was possible). The RAF's accident card AM Form 1180 states that there were five on board and I will stick at the number of crew being five (minus the flight engineer and second air gunner). The Spring 1989 R.A.F.A. Magazine also included an account of this incident from the rear gunner. The pilot's son contacted me with regard this incident, a diary was kept by his father and in which he stated that the crew were taken to Rufforth airfield after the crash where they spent the night, the following day they returned to the site to remove items from the aircraft before leaving them at Rufforth, leaving York by train at 14.35hrs and arriving at Didcot at 23.30hrs, returning to Harwell shortly afterwards.

Pilot - Sgt James Henry Allen RAVR (1600903).

Bomb Aimer - Sgt Norman Marter Phillips RAFVR (1389293).

Navigator - Sgt Colin Joseph Dudley RAFVR (1390867).

Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - W/O Cohen.

Rear Gunner - F/Sgt Louis Patrick Wooldridge RAF (649746). Minor injuries.