A 104 Sqdn Wellington Mk2.
The crew of this Merlin powered Wellington MkII took off from their base at Driffield at 18.35 hrs on the 15th
of January 1942 and, along with other aircraft from the same squadron, were to bomb Emden. All
appears to have gone well for this aircraft and its crew over the target and many fires were claimed as started by the 50
strong force. On return to
Yorkshire, the crew of this aircraft became lost in cloud and ended up over the North Yorkshire Moors. At
midnight the aircraft was flying in a south easterly direction, the aircraft descended through
the cloud and clipped a peice of moor north of Hawnby at 00.05 hrs. The pilot must have just
lost height at that moment as if they had been flying at a similar height for even a few seconds
previous, they would have struck higher ground to the north west.
On striking an upward slope, the force jumped the aircraft up and onto the moor top braking
the aircrafts back and leaving it in two peices. Part of the wreckage caught fire on the snow
covered moor. Four of the crew were killed and two injured in the crash.
I spoke to Mr William Wood, (formerly of Ewe Cote Farm, now retired and living in Helmsley)
in June 2003, he recalled and recounted the events of this night very well as he was one of the first on the scene along
with the Chop Gate policeman. His story adds some interesting facts. Mr Wood was told to check in the rear gun turret to see if there
was anyone in it, after crawling in, the gunner appeared to him to have been lucky and survived,
though injured as he was no where to be seen. It is thought that those who survived had walked off
in the opposite direction to where those who found the aircraft had come, Mr Wood made no
mention to seeing those who survived. Mr Wood recalled an orange and a bar of chocolate being
tucked neatly in the rear turret and were unmoved in the crash. Mr Wood and
the other young men present at the crash later carried three of the dead airmen on a cart to nearby
Woolhouse Croft where they were later taken away by the authorities for burial. The pilot was
removed some time later from the cockpit after RAF units arrived. The wreckage took around six
weeks to remove from the moor due to the heavy snow that was to fall. Mr Wood recalls a Fordson
tractor being used with a sledge to drag the main lumps away to Laskill.
In Feb 2004 I spoke to Mr Aran Clark formerly of Bumper Castle, Snilesworth (now of Egton).
I recounted Mr Wood's memories of this crash to him which jogged his memory. He and Mr Wood
lived close to each other at the time and were friends. Mr Clark also recalled the orange in
the rear turret and that the rear gunner had indeed walked away from the crash; to Hazelshaw
House, the nearest farm house just to the West of where the crash had occured. Hazelshaw House
was farmed at the time by Mr Clarks mothers sister's family, Mrs Garb. Atkinson. She did what she could
for him and it is thought he made a full recovery. With regard the other survivor, it is still not known what
happened to him immediately after the crash but information gathered from talking to a further local, whilst a third-hand account,
he tells me that
this airman broke at least one leg and was carried down from the crash site on the aircrafts dinghy to one of the
farms near Bumper Castle. Both he and the rear gunner were eventually taken to hospital.
It seems likely that Mr Wood had not seen the two taken to Bumper Castle as he arrived at the crash site after they had left. His and Mr Clarks
accounts were identical otherwise.
Mr Clark also recalls one of those killed in the crash was missing for a time, having been thrown out of the aircraft as it broke up.
Those at the site searched the area for him and Mr Clark
recalled being the one who stumbled over him in the heather. Being only young lads this incident must have shocked him and he was
able to vividly recount the story to me. Mr Clark also told me that his father also
assisted in taking those who were killed in the crash to Laskill to await their removal for
burial. I was also told that the tail section of the aircraft was pretty much intact following the crash, as was the majority of
the rest of the rear of the aircraft, in that it still looked like an aircraft.
The aircraft was built to contract B71441/40 by Vickers Armstrongs Ltd at Weybridge and delivered to 33 MU at Lyneham on 22nd April 1941.
It was then transferred to 24 MU at Ternhill on 15th May 1941 and 51 MU at Lichfield on 23rd October 1941. It finally went to an
operational unit, 405 Sqdn at Driffield on 9th November 1941. It was later transferred to 104 Sqdn, still at Driffield on 6th January 1942.
It was written off with Cat E2/FB Burnt damage ten days later on 16th January 1942 in the incident detailed above. It was struck off charge on
23rd January 1942 with total flying hours of 36.55.
Pilot - Sgt John Wilmot RAFVR, aged 29, buried Barrhead RC Cemetery, Renfrewshire. Probably of either Grimsby or Kingeton?
Pilot - Sgt John B Turner RCAF, aged 20, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Buried Topcliffe Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Observer - Sgt Douglas R Bradley RNZAF, aged 28, born Papakura, Auckland, New Zealand, buried Topcliffe Cemetery, Yorkshire.
WOp / AG - Sgt George White RAFVR, aged 22, of Felling, Gateshead, buried Heworth Churchyard, County Durham.
WOp - Sgt Regan OR Sgt Hogan RCAF - injured. Fate after crash unknown. Sources vary for his name.
Rear Gunner - Sgt Upham RAF - injured. Survived. Sgt James A Upham.
Sgt's Bradley and Turner gravestones at Topcliffe, Yorkshire. Kings Scout John Turner had recorded
63 hours of flying upto his death. Both men were buried at Topcliffe Cemetery on the 20th of January 1942.
Sgt Douglas Bradley was born in Papakura, Auckland, New Zealand on 25th June 1913, he was educated at Auckland Grammar School and later worked on
his fathers dairy farmer at Wellsford. He enlised into the RNZAF on 7th May 1940 as a pilot, and trained at 2 EFTS 27th July 1940.
This cannot have gone well as he remustered as an observer on 1st Sept 1940 and begun his training in September 1940. He embarked Aorangi
for Canada on 5th December 1940. He gained his Air Observer Badge and was made a Sgt on 26th April 1941. He embarked for the UK via Iceland
and arrived in the UK in June 1941. He trained at 22 OTU in July 1941 and did only one operation flight with 104 Sqdn before being killed in
the incident described above. A photo of him is said to have appeared in 'The Weekly News' of 11th February 1942, to which i have no access. My thanks to
Errol Martyn and his excellent series of "For Your Tomorrow" books of RNZAF losses for much of this information.
Sgt George White's gravestone in Heworth Churchyard, Co. Durham. I have to thank local historian Mr Bill Hartmann for this photograph,
he runs the website about St Mary's Church, Heworth and kindly took
and sent me this photograph.
Hawnby Moor, the aircraft crashed here.
The one peice we found in March 2003.
In March 2003 John and I searched for this aircraft, we found one peice of alloy near to where the aircraft is said to have come
down on Hawnby Moor. Although not a fully successful search we proved that an aircraft did come down here and all the information that
I have says that it is a Wellington.
After speaking to Mr Wood, a return trip to the moor was needed, we returned in Nov 2003, found the peice we found last time
which Mr Wood put on the exact location for the crash site. We did another more detailed search and came up with a dozen or so
small peices of the aircraft which included copper tube, perspex and a small heap of molten alloy.
Bill Chorley's Losses Book and some others sources state that this aircraft crashed on "Arden Great Moor", this is incorrect. I do
have a grid ref for an suggested crash site on Arden Great Moor, John Skinn and myself checked this in Feb 2003 and found nothing.
We knew that this aircraft had not crashed there but it was checked to see if an unknown aircraft had infact gone down there.
It may be where a Middleton St George based Whitley made a forced landing which gets a mention in a search-light battery record. This Whitley is
now thought to have crashed closer to Kepwick.
My thanks to Mr W Wood for alot of the information on this page. With out his help we would not have located the crash site in the modern day due to the clear up done by the RAF.
My thanks to Mr A Clark for being able to fill in some of the blanks and being able to add other comments to what happened on this night.
With regard Sgt Regan, two other Regans have been tracked down but are not thought to be connected. A D. Regan 103255 was made P/O from
Acting P/O on 21st July 1941 and a C. D. Regan 41616 was made F/O on 3rd September 1941, both men would have held
the wrong rank at the time of the crash so I rule both out.
One J.A.Upham RAF 612251, became a PoW later in the War, held at Camp 449. he could well have been the same man.
A German aircraft dropped a mine onto this moor during the War, the explosion was said to be extremely loud! I may try and hunt for a possible crater left by this someday, if anyone has a grid ref for it I would love to know it. I am told that it was in the area between Low Thwaites and Ladhill Gill somewhere, can anyone confirm this? I have since been told the bang was more than massive !! The crater it left was bigger than a nearby farm house. I guess that there will still be the crater left.