The crew on this Lancaster took off at 23.50hrs from Waddington on 30th January 1943, 148 aircraft were to attack Hamburg.
On their return, they were diverted north and told to land at Leeming. It is thought that the crew
became lost and would begin to run out of fuel. The aircraft lost height and by the time they flew into high ground at
the side of Hawnby Hill a crash would have been enevitable. It struck birch trees just prior to crashing near Moorgate
and whilst flying roughly south, completely the wrong direction
to Leeming. A crash report mentions the aircraft had already suffered at least one engine failure prior to the crash, others speak of three engines being feathered at the time
of the crash probably due to lack of fuel.
I learn from speaking to locals that
the crew had known they were flying at too low a height and prior to the crash were throwing anything out of the aircraft
to try and gain that extra bit of height. All onboard were killed in the resulting crash. Backing this story up of things being thrown from the aircraft,
a Browning machine gun was located by Brian Rapier some years ago and
is photographed in his "White Rose Base" book. It was in a poor condition. A gun which appears to be the same
one is currently held in the Air Gunner Room at the Yorkshire Air Museum. Propellor marks are said to be visible on the moor near Moorgate, I have yet to locate them.
There is also a suggestion that Leeming re-diverted the crew south, possibly to Topcliffe, it was during this leg that they crashed but they had flown into the hills.
No official source to prove this theory has yet been found by myself but it could well be true. It may be of interest that this raid
was the first to use H2S radar on the Pathfinder aircraft, however this time the H2S was not effective.
The aircraft was built to contract B69274/40 by A.V. Roe Ltd in Manchester and delivered directly to 9 Sqdn at Waddington on 15th January
1943. It was still a new aircraft and only two weeks old when it was written off in the incident detailed above. The Form Am78
states damage was only at Cat B/FB, however this is a mistake, for Cat E2/FB. It was struck off charge on 10th February 1943.
Pilot - F/Sgt Frank G Nelson USAAF, aged 24, of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, USA. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire
F Eng - Sgt McKeen Allan RCAF, aged 33, of Northport, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Nav - Sgt George F Done RAFVR, aged 21, of Carmarthen, buried Northwich Cemetery, Cheshire. He gained a teachers diploma at Trinity College, Carmarthen before signing up.
Nav / Bomber - Sgt Alan A F Williams RAFVR, aged 26, of Whitstable, buried Seasalter, Kent. He was previously a member of the Metropolitan Police Force.
W Op / Air Gunner - Sgt Henry S Jones RAFVR, aged 21, of Sutton Coldfield, Warks, buried Sutton Coldfield.
Air Gunner - Sgt Arthur W Butcher RAFVR, aged 19, of Upper Tysoe, Warwickshire. Buried Tysoe, Warwickshire.
Rear Gunner - Sgt Walter G Murton RAFVR, aged 21, of Capetown, South Africa. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Four of the crew's headstones.
The aircraft crashed into the foreground of the above photograph, on various visits to the site I
located a possible impact crater which has an amount of wreckage in it.
The aircraft flew in from this direction and ended up in the fore ground of the photograph.
My thanks to Mr J Weighell who visited this crash hours after it happened, he states that it
flew straight into the side of the hill and did not strike ground before hitting here.