The R34 Airship.

On the 27th of January 1921 the R34 airship was being flown to test it after its major overhaul and its period of inactivity. On board were a number of RAF navigators who, it is believed, were being given instruction. Its precise course is not yet known. What is known is that some of the crew were in their bunks and whilst somewhere off the Yorkshire / Durham coast the weather turned bad, with visibility reduced the airship struck high ground south of Guisborough at around 1200 feet ASL. A sudden downdraft had pushed the airship onto the Moors at 00.10 hrs on the 28th of January, it awoke those asleep in its bunks. The airship then bounced off the Moor and back into the air. The Captain then ordered the engines to be stopped whilst the damage was inspected. The front gondola had been badly smashed and had heather stuck in it, its engine had been made useless, the aft car similarly had its propellers taken out. A Disress signal was made and two destroyers, HMS Wrestler and HMS Walker were ordered to proceed from Harwich to stand by incase R34 drifted out to sea. A tug from Hull also stood by in the Humber. The airship arrived back at Howden later that night but it was 16.34hrs before it was landed. It had taken 15 hours to get back to Howden due to two of the engines being rendered useless after all the propellers had snapped off. The only power was through the engines on the wing cars.

When they arrived back at Howden high winds then prevented the ground crew getting it into a hanger, after striking the ground a number of times they resorted to mooring it to trees in a nearby field! The next day it was inspected and found to be too badly damaged to be repaired. Over the next three days it was scrapped.

The is also a report that during the early part of 1920 the USA decided to buy the R38 airship and it was planned that it would be flown over the Atlantic after purchase. A crew was therefore sent to Howden to learn how to fly an airsip, namely this one, the R34.

The information regarding this incident come from a number of people, Brian Turpin, Jim Rudland and Graham Sharpe.

I do not yet know exactly who was on board the day it struck the North Yorkshire Moors but the total includes those listed below:

Captain - Fl Lt Hedley V Drew

F/O Harold F Luck

Sqdn Ldr Gaskell

Aircraftman W Johnson

Possibly Fred Brodie, of Chippenham.

The R34 Airship after hitting the Moors and being bashed by ground crew at Howden.

The airship was built in 1918 at the Beardmore Inchinnan airship factory, Glasgow. It was a massive airship, it measured 643 feet long, 79 feet in diameter and was 1,950,000 cft in volume. It had five new Sunbeam Maori engines each with 270 hp which gave it a top speed of 62 mph. It was nick-named "Tiny".

The R34 had already made the first ever trans-oceanic airship flight in mid 1919. It flew to Mineola, New York and back. It had then been overhauled at Howden, prior to its crash near Guisborough.

I do not know exactly where the airship struck the moor, I do not expect there to be any sign of it there today but I would still like to locate the exact spot where it hit.