On the 22nd of September 1942 a Wellington was on a gunnery exercise with a Spitfire over Pickering. The Spitfire was making dummy attacks on the Wellington. This was a common occurance just south of Pickering and had been sucessful at all previous times here. On this day however it was not to be, the Spitfire attacked the Wellington but did not break away in time and struck the rear of the Wellington. On talking to a local gentleman, Mr Cecil Cook, who was a teenager at the time and living in Pickering, it became apparent that he he witnessed this collision. He was working in fields near what is now a garden centre, he and his friend had often watched these dummy attacks take place here and this was no exception. They noticed the Spitfire attack and that it was closer to the Wellington than usual at about 1000ft up. The Spitfire tried to pull up but struck the rear of the aircraft (crash report says front turret) and damaged the Wellington badly enough to be uncontrolable. Mr Cook said that the pilot had applied more power to try and stay airbourne but this only compounded the resulting crash seconds later. Mr Cook and his friend cycled the half mile to where the Wellington had gone in nose first, which was on the railway line just east of the Black Bull, between Pickering and Malton. (From Mr Cook's description it seemed to have crashed at an angle of about 70'). An Army despatch rider was first on the scene and had tried to rescue the airmen but due to the resulting fire from the crash there was nothing he could do for those who had survived the crash itself. Mr Cook still vividly recalls seeing the airmen inside the burning aircraft trying to get out. The crew of five were all killed, they were :

The aircraft was built to contract 124362/40 by Vickers Armstrong's Ltd. at Chester and delivered as new to 425 Sqdn which formed at Dishforth on 25th June 1942. The aircraft flew only training sorties until being struck off charge following this accident with Cat. E2/FA damage.

Pilot - F/Sgt Eugene Kuzyk RCAF, aged 24, of Innisfree, Alberta, Canada. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire. He had a total of 214 hours flying time when he was killed, 76 of these were on the Wellinton MkIc and 20 hours on the MkIII.

W Op / Air Gunner - Sgt Edward W St.Cyr RCAF, aged 25, of Richmond, Province of Quebec, Canada. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.

W Op - P/O Raoul J Rioux RCAF, aged 23, of Grand Falls, New Brunswick, Canada. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Air Gunner - F/Sgt Donald A Girouard RCAF, aged 24, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire. Husband of Lena Girouard.

Air Gunner - F/Sgt Joseph R A Boudreault RCAF, aged 25, of Sept Iles, Province of Quebec, Canada. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.

For the Spitfire's details click here.

The Spitfire had also been seriously damaged in the collision and had lost its tail section in the impact. Mr Cook and his friend watched this aircraft crash. (They would later find it crashed near to the old Ings Bridge, south of Pickering.) It had not gone down in a dive like the Wellington but had gone into a flat spin. It eventually did end up nose first in the middle of Costa Beck at at 90' angle. Mr Cook cycled down to this site after leaving the Wellington site, from Mr Cooks description of this landing it became clear that the pilot had been killed instantly either on impact with the Wellington or with the ground and there was nothing that could be done for this pilot.

F/Sgt Boudreault.

Dishforth Cemetery.

Three of the crew's gravestones at Dishforth Cemetery.

In July 2003 Mr Cook showed me exactly where the Wellington crashed. The railway line is no more and a golf course now takes up alot of the area around the Black Bull. The aircraft itself crashed on the edge of this very close to a heap of grass cuttings! I express my thanks to Mr Cook for spending an enjoyable morning with me and thank Mr R. Dowson for putting me in touch with him.