Wellington on Fremington Edge, Reeth.

On the 29th of May 1943 the crew of this aircraft took from base at Skipton on Swale near Thirsk at 22.40hrs tasked with bombing Wuppertal. On their return they became lost when flying in cloud, they overshot base and when letting down through cloud to try and work out their position the aircraft crashed into hight ground near Reeth in Swaledale at 04.40hrs on the 30th of May. Two of the crew were killed in the crash, the other four on board were injured and it is though three seriously.

A letter found in a 1970s edition of The Dalesman from Mr Kenneth F Walker, a former member of 40 MU refers to this incident. He reported that the aircraft was totally smashed up after the crash and the Unit would take some time to totally clear the crash site. They had to use sledges to drag the heavier items some distance over wet heather to the nearest road. A damaged wall was also rebuilt by them. Children from Reeth managed to get to the crash site before all the ammunition was cleared, these childen relieved the crash site of much of this and the local village policeman spent some time recovering it all.

Pilot - Sgt Fred T Dingwall RCAF (J17798). Aged ? Buried Ripon Cemetery, Yorkshire. He was married to a lady from Ripon, Yorkshire but his Canadian home is not known.

Pilot - F/Lt Leslie E Blight RCAF (J3989). Aged 25, of Jarvis, Ontario, Canada. Buried Ripon Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Nav - Sgt D Harmon RAF

Bomb Aimer - Sgt Francis J Naylor RAF (162617). Of Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire. Injured.

WOp/AG - Sgt K E la Chappelle RAF (possibly Joseph D E Lachappelle RCAF, of Montreal, seriously injured around the same time as this crash)

AG - Sgt W Leadley RAF

The two crew's headstones in Ripon Cemetery, Yorkshire.

The general area of where the aircraft crashed. I learn from Dick Barton that he located parts some years ago at the grassy side of the wall (to the left of the wall) and that the aircraft actually crashed first onto the area I found my parts and then continued through the wall to finish with its front end almost to the "edge" itself.

In June 2007 I located peices of the aircraft and by doing so confirming the area of the crash. Not much remains, the sum total of three hours searching were two peices of aircraft alluminium and a three peices of rubber. Whist searching I also located the Geocache ammo-box by mistake, (an ever-increasing hobby to locate these hidden cache's and log visits)

A peice of Wellington geodetic structure.

Another small peice of the aircraft.

Sadly F/O Francis Naylor was to be killed only days before the War ended. On 10th April 1945 his Lancaster was hit by flak and whilst bailing out he slipped from his parachute and was sadly killed. He is buried in Nederweert War Cemetery. He was 24 years old.