On the 1st of July 1941 the pilot of this Hurricane took off from Usworth to carry out an aerobatic practice,
he force landed the aircraft near Egton Bridge after he became lost in bad weather
and ran out of fuel. The landing was made with its undercarriage retracted at just after 17.30hrs. The pilot was unable to use
his radio due to the airwaves being congested at the time, which was put at the main reason for him becoming lost.
The 55 OTU ORB for the 1st of July 1941 the incident is listed as "Flying accident at Egton Bridge near Whitby". The pilot was uninjured.
The following is taken from one of the pilots letters, dated 5th July 1941, written to his mother
back home and makes mention of the incident..
""Well mum I have smashed another aircraft. I was sent up to 25,000 ft to practise aerobatics and I got lost as it
was awful foggy. It was foggy from (?) ft down to the ground and I had a hell of a time trying to get down on
the ground. Well I did finally and landed in a farmers back yard. I had to land with the wheels up according to
Regulations and of course traveling at 90 M.P.H and hitting the ground on your belly, makes quite a mess of the
ground, but I only broke the propellor and nothing else. They told me that I made a successful forced landing and they
praised me upon but they couldn’t understand why I got lost, but a dam Englishman [tongue in cheek according to previous correspondance]
doesn’t understand a lot of things. I got shakened up a little bit but I was unhurt which is all I care for.""
The aircraft was built to contract 85730/40 by Gloster Aircraft Ltd at Hucclecote and delivered to the RAF in December 1940. After
acceptance it was issued to 87 Sqdn at Charmy Down in the same month. It moved on an unspecified date to 96 Sqdn at Cranage in
early 1941 then onto 55 OTU at Usworth, again on an as yet unspecified date. It was damaged, Cat B/FA, in the above incident from where it was
dismantled and removed by road with a view to repair but appears to have been deemed not worth repairing and left in store until
being struck off charge on 27th October 1944.
Pilot - Sgt Harry Lewis Gill RCAF, aged c18, of Fredericton, York County, New Brunswick, Canada. Uninjured.
I do not know where this aircraft came to ground but it is almost certainly in the area contained on this photograph.
Harry Gill was born in South Devon, New Brunswick, Canada in 1922 and lived there prior to his enlistment, before which he was a
labourer. He enlisted in Moncton on 22nd August 1940 and trained at 1 ITS and 11 EFTS. He graduated from 2 SFTS
on 10th April 1941 and arrived in UK on 24th April 1941 where he continued his training 55 OTU, based at RAF Usworth.
Afew days prior to his landing at Egton he suffered his first mishap; whilst coming into land at Usworth on the 24th June 1941
the undercarriage of the
aircraft struck a mound of soil on the edge of the airfield. This tore the undercarriage off and the propeller bit into the ground.
He eventaully climbed out uninjured but the aircraft, Hurricane V6984, was slightly damaged.
Following the Egton incident he had a grand total of 126 hours flying, with 38 hours being on the Hurricane. He was soon posted to
Nairn, Scotland, a further letter home on 12th July 1941 confirms this. He states that he was about to be posted to the north of Scotland to
learn to fly Spitfires with 607 Sqdn.
Sadly F/Sgt Harry Gill lost his life whilst serving with 607 Sqdn in Asia on 17th of January 1943. He had by then being
awarded a DFM and was still only 20 years old. He is buried at Maynamati Cemetery, Bangladesh. His Distinguished Flying Medal was
gained whilst he was with 607 Squadron, the award being effective as per London Gazette dated 17 March 1942. His citation for reads
""Since joining the squadron in July 1941, this airman has carried out several offensive fighter
patrols over enemy territory both by day and by night. Targets attacked included power stations, large concentration
distilleries and factories. On one occasion Flight Sergeant Gill sighted two of our aircraft which had been forced
down onto the sea and remained over them until driven off by a formation of enemy fighters. On 12th February 1942
this airman participated in operations against a German battleship and their escorts and pressed home his attack
with great determination in the face of fierce enemy opposition. He damaged at least one enemy motor vessel and
one enemy aircraft. This airman has always displayed initiative and keenness and has proved himself to be an
inspiration to his fellow pilots.""
I would like to thank the pilots neice, Ms Barbara Gill for contacting me and for the information she has been able
to provide regarding her uncle. Her book ""Soul Gifts"" contains more of her uncles letters.
A fair amount of information regarding the pilot has been collected, mainly through the efforts of his neice, Ms Barbara Gill, who
has shared her research with me. Without which this page would not be as complete and I thank her for this.