The Whitley at Nether Silton.
On the 3rd of September 1940 this Whitley, J for Johnny, took from Leeming at 20.26 hrs to bomb a power transformer
plant in Berlin. On its return the aircraft ran low on fuel and the wireless failed, the pilot was forced to make a landing at 06.45 hrs.
The aircraft landed with its undercarriage up, in a small field near Hall Farm, Nether Silton, to the south of Osmotherley.
The aircraft was written off but the crew were all uninjured.
The aircraft was built to contract 75147/38 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd. at Baginton and after delivery to MU in May 1940 it
was issued to 10 Sqdn who were based at Dishforth at the time. It was immediately damaged on Ops when it received Cat.R(b)/FB damage on
18th May 1940. When whilst bombing an oil storage facilities at Bremen it was hit by 'flak' and sustained damage to the fabric
covering on port aileron and some fuselage damage. The crew returned safely to Dishorth. The pilot on these occasion being
S/Ldr. R. Bickford. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service. It moved with the unit to Leeming on 8th July 1940. In the
above incident on 4th September 1940 it received Cat W/FB damage and was written off.
Pilot - F/Lt Dennis Geoffrey Tomlinson RAF, ok (37989) Promoted to F/Lt on 3rd Sept 1940.
? - P/O Kenneth Douglass Brant RAF, ok (81655) (745247) He was made a Sgt on 19th June 1940.
? - Sgt W O Walters RAF, ok.
? - Sgt P Hughes RAF, ok.
? - Sgt Angus J McIntosh RAF (966647), ok.
Another view of the crash site.
I have yet to visit the site of this forced landing.
P/O Kenneth Brant DFC was killed on 26th June 1941 whilst with 21 OTU. The aircraft he was flying in, Whitley N1379 crashed near Kinloss. he is buried at Worthing.
A P A Hughes RAF (33410) is listed as being a PoW when his aircraft was shot down on 8th August 1944. He spent the rest of his War at Camp L3. It may or may not be the same man, given the relative lowness of his service number he could well be the same man.
Earlier in the War F/Lt Tomlinson was piloting another Whitley, P4941 (which incidently had force landed at Riseborough, near Pickering only a month previous with a different Squadron and is listed on my Ryedale War listings), for reasons unknown to me. Tomlinson's rear gunner baled out over Germany.
Tomlinson was also to be involved in another incident only weeks later above Thirsk (which is also detailed on the Ryedale listing to this website).
Later in the War Sgt McIntosh's aircraft was damaged over Germany, he was forced to bail out and spent the rest of the War as a PoW at Camp L6, PoW No. 281.
The ultimate fates of Tomlinson and Walters is unknown.