On the night of 17th of December 1943 bad weather was covering the high ground of Yorkshire and part of the Vale of York.
The crew of this aircraft were returning from a raid on Berlin and they became lost in the poor visibility on returning to Yorkshire.
They, like others crews were diverted north from their base at East Moor and were ordered to land further north at Leeming where
conditions were probably better. Having set out from East Moor at 16.57hrs the
previous day, fuel by now was running low, they could not make Leeming so they baled when the aircraft ran too low on fuel.
They baled out safely and landed around the Danby Beacon area. The aircraft came down close to a peat bog to the north of Danby just
after midnight, in the early hours of the 17th December. The 2nd pilot was flying with this crew for operational experience. The
majority of the wreckage was removed in the days after the cras by 60 MU who had to use sleds to drag it off the moor
because of the conditions underfoot - it had crashed at the wrong side of peat bog.
This crash occured only afew hours after a Lancaster had crashed near Hawnby (listed previously on this website).
The night claimed many aircraft of their return to England due to the weather, one being at Yearsley near Easingwold, Yorkshire.
The aircraft was built to contract AC239 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd at Baginton and delivered to the RAF in September 1943. It was
issued to 432 Sqdn at East Moor in October 1943 when the unit converted from Wellingtons to the Lancaster B.II model. It was destroyed in the
incident detailed above, with Cat E2/FB Burnt damage being recorded.
Pilot - F/O H B Hatfield RCAF - ok.
2nd Pilot - F/L John A Allen RCAF - ok. Of Black's Harbor, N.B. Canada. Married to Honor Mary Allen of Paddington, London.
F Eng - Sgt A Phillips RAF - ok.
Nav - F/O J Higgs RCAF - ok.
Bomb Aimer - F/O G J Smith RCAF - ok.
W Op - Sgt W H Poole RAF - inj, broke arm.
Mid Upper Gunner - Sgt Robert Hutchinson RAFVR - ok. Married to Margaret Hutchinson, of Croxley Green, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.
Rear Gunner - F/Sgt Alexander M McGregor RCAF- ok. Of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
This was one of the first crash sites I had attempted to locate. In August 2002 I covered a wide area of the moor
finding only one fragment of metal. Some years later, some failed trips later I was now armed with fresh information as to its exact crash location.
This came from Mr Andy Hunter, without which I could have been still looking for the crash site. John Skinn and I finally located the site
in December 2004. A large shallow depression in the ground was clearly visable and a small scattering of the usual style of wreckage
present at the site.
A number of small peices found at the impact site, located in December 2004.
F/Lt John Allen (pictured above) was killed over Germany on 3rd January 1944, he was 23 years old and is buried in Berlin. He was on his second tour
of operations.
Sgt Hutchinson was killed on 14th January 1944, he was still only 20 years old. He is buried in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery.
F/Sgt McGregor was killed on 19th April 1944, he was 29 years old, he is buried in Clichy Northern Cemetery.
It is possible that a F/L George J Smith (killed 1st May 1944) and a Sgt Alfred A Phillips (killed 15th May 1944) are the same
persons as were in the Lancaster that crashed near Danby Beacon. It has however not been possible as yet to determine whether
they are the same individuals as they were in different squadrons at the time of their deaths.
Not alot is currently know about any of the crew. F/O Hatfield and crew were posted to 1679 HCU in October 1943 for conversion to
Lancasters. On 8th October 1943, F/O Hatfield had bombed Hannover in Wellington HE800. The Squadron then converted to Lancasters
and then on 26th November 1943 he and crew in Lancaster DS832 were accompanied by F/S Demaria as a second pilot, Berlin was the target.
F/O Hatfield and crew bombed Berlin on 2nd December 1943 without incident and no second pilot this time.
I do not know that fate of the pilot F/O Hatfield after this Danby incident, it is though that he survived the War and returned home.
