A 58 Sqdn Whitley at Linton on Ouse.
At 16.05hrs on the 3rd of December 1940 this Whitley took off from Linton on Ouse and
formed up with other eight other Whitley's with the order of bombing Lorient.
The Whitleys encountered thick cloud over the target and only four
aircraft managed to bomb, there were no losses over the target area.
On its return to Yorkshire the pilot of this aircraft mistook the flare path at the
dummy "K" airfield at the
top of Sutton Bank near Cold Kirby for that of a real airfield. The area of Cold Kirby was enveloped in cloud, the aircraft
made two unsuccessful attempts at landing and on the third he touched down a distance up the field. There was a strong tail wind
at the time, it was thought this wind caused the aircraft to increase its ground speed. The landing was made
just after midnight but the Whitley hit a mock up aircraft and
both aircraft were wrecked. The crew of the Whitley all survived.
The aircraft was built to contract 38599/39 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd. at Baginton and after delivery to MU in September 1940 it
was issued to 58 Sqdn. It was written off with Cat W/FB damage in the above incident on 3rd December 1940.
Pilot - Sgt Gosling RAF, ok.
2nd Pilot - P/O Kerry RAF, ok. (Possibly W A Kerry RAF 127998, he later became a PoW at Camp L3.
? - Sgt Kirby RAF, ok.
? - Sgt Crisp RAF, ok.
? - Sgt Uff RAF, ok. (possibly John Grange Uff RAF 52150 (654690), served with 104 Sqdn in 1942, awarded a DFM "for gallantry and devotion
to duty in the execution of air operations." (presented on 11 May 1943.) He was made a F/Lt from a F/O on 11 Nov 1943).
Former Dialstone resident Mr Joseph Sharp tells me that the dummy airfield at Cold Kirby was used fairly frequently by bomber aircraft
to make landings in
the first part of the War when the weather in the Vale of York was bad. A number of these aircraft made successful landing here and
took off on the Dialstone to Sutton Bank Top road when conditions improved. This must have been a site to see. The dummy field initially
had wooden Whitley
mock-up aircraft placed on tressle table, these were then replaced by fake Boston aircraft on wheels which could be towed around, the site
was
complete with a flare path made from oil drums and burning oil. German bombers are not thought to have been too fooled by
the decoy however. It is known that one bomb was dropped close to White Mare Crag, and did not explode. It was found by Mr John Sharp
of Dialstone whilst rounding sheep up, and later removed from the ground blown up. The result of their digging is apparently still visable.
A further site was built later in the War to the north of Dialstone Farm, near where a Halifax would crash in 1945,
this decoy did not have any enemy attracted to it, the site had a generator building, which the base of is thought to remain in a field
boundary.
Can anyone help in IDing the initials or Christian names of the crew, the records do not state these.
I have yet to visit and locate the actual crash site. Although I know roughly where the site is, the area is grass farmland and I doubt
anything will remain on the surface.
There are two possiblities for Sgt Kirby's identity, the first and most likely is Sgt Reginald Denis Kirby (759233), killed 12th May 1941 and was serving with the same squadron, 58 Sqdn. the
other less likely chap is P S Kirby RAF (1450081) who became a PoW at Camp L7.