The crew of this Lancaster took off from Syerston at 19.15hrs on the 13th of October 1942. 288 aircraft
of various types were tasked with bombing Kiel. The Germans operated a decoy fire site away from
Kiel and this was partially successful in attracting at least half of the bombing force to drop
their bombs in the open countryside, although forty one Germans were killed on the ground.
On the return leg of the flight the crew of this aircraft became lost, and flew too far north of their Lincolnshire base.
They flew into this area of high ground, the North Yorkshire Moors but were not flying high enough to clear it when the aircraft
crashed at 01.00hrs on the following morning, the 14th October. The aircraft caught fire on crashing and would eventually burn itself out.
Navigational errors were blamed for the crash along with the pilots decision to go below the 1000 feet height to try and aid
locating where they were, a common cause for crashes in the areas of high ground in Yorkshire. Whilst there is no evidence to prove it,
it seems likely that all the survivors either escaped on their own accord or were helped from the burning aircraft and possibly those who would
later be confirmed dead were also dragged out before fire took over the aircraft completely. The navigator on this flight
is reported to have volunteered to have flown with this crew on this trip after the crew's regular navigator (name as yet known) was
unable to make the flight as he was sick. He was sadly one of those killed in the crash. One of the air gunners, Sgt Lund, is said to have
struggled off the moor to a nearby farm house, probably Hagg House Farm, where he raised the alarm (I have been told that he had broken
both of his ankles so this was some feat in itself). The pilot had initially survived the crash, though his condition is not known and
following help arriving he was taken to the Adela Shaw Orthopaedic Hospital in Kirkbymoorside, where he sadly died on the 15th of October 1942.
The location of the crash is often given as "Hagg House Moor", this is infact an error, the aircraft actually crashed at the summit of Todd Intake Moor at
Crookstaff Hill. The error probably is due to an inorrect distance from Thirsk given in a number of source, 14 miles NE of Thirsk instead of 15 miles.
The RAF clear up team did a good job of clearing the sitem what did remains has all but gone in recent years.
The aircraft was built to contract B69274/40 by A.R. Roe Ltd in Manchester and delivered directly to 61 Sqdn on 19th September 1942.
The AM Form 78 states the aircraft was Cat E/FB (Missing) on 14th Octobet 1942, it was not officially reported as "found". The aircraft was
struck off charge on 14th October 1942 with total flying time of 47.25 hours.
Those who lost their lives as a result of this crash were :
Pilot - F/Sgt Henry E Game RAF, aged 27, of West Southbourne, Bournemouth, buried Bournemouth. Survived crash but died
from his injuries on 15 Oct 1942. He was probably born in West Ham, London in 1915. He had a total of 225 hours flying to his name, 38 hours of which were at night
and 20 of those being on this type of Lancaster
Nav / Air Obs - F/O Leonard C R Leach RCAF, aged 21, of Dryden, Ontario, Canada. Buried Milland, Sussex.
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Ronald Court RAFVR, aged 19, of Streatham, London. Buried Streatham Park Cemetery, London.
Those injured were:
F Eng - Sgt H Scattergood RAF - injured.
W Op - Sgt Lawrence Sidney James Hamblett RAF - injured.
Air Gunner - Sgt Ernest Charles Hawkins RAF - injured.
Rear Gunner - Sgt Edmund T Lund RAFVR - injured, two broken ankles. Of Nelson, Lancashire.
F/O Leach's grave in Sussex (photo Jim Rutland).
Scattergood 172780 is also thought to have either been awarded a DFM or a DFC on 28th February 1941, if this is the case then his
name entry above should include this award.
The only peice found on my first trip to Hagg House Moor and possibly not from the Lancaster at all ! Parts of the nearby Wellington are known to
have been scattered and carried far and wide to patch up stone walls, this peice could well have been dropped en route to such a wall.
The general area of where the Lancaster is now known to have crashed.
One small peice found by me in May 2002, when I thought that a Blenheim had infact crashed here, not the
Lancaster as now known.
Graham Sharpe with one peice of an aircraft, thought now to be part of this Lancaster found in the 1970's.
P/O Leach's hometown newspaper, the Dryden Observer made mention on the 7th of August 1942 that on the 3rd of August
he took part in a raid over Dusseldorf. ""All of the nine Canadians were pleased with results
and expressed joy in being able to make the trip over Germany"" it stated, and ""Of almost an hour's duration, the attack ruined
about half of the munitions-making city says the report"".
Hamblett 148273 and Hawkins were awarded DFM's which were gazetted on the 13th of August 1943, these may be as a result of their
actions on this night or for completing a Tour of Duty.
John Skinn, Will Lund (no relation) and myself searched for the Lancaster in January 2003, we covered a large area
of the Hagg House Moor finding only one peice of what was assumed to be aircraft. This peice must be some way from the site
of where the plane burnt out as we failed to locate where it must have come to a rest. It later became clear that the aircraft had not actually crashed
on Hagg House Moor having purchased a death certificate of one of the fatalities which gave a map reference for the crash site.
F/O Edmund T Lund RAFVR was sadly killed on 20th May 1944 whilst serving with 7 Sqdn. The
Lancaster he was in was hit by light flak and exploded over Calais. He was 29 years old and is buried
at Pas-de-Calais, France. A memorial window has been placed in his hometown parish church at St John's in Nelson, Lancashire
on which his name appears.