Mosquito DZ421 in the foreground.

On the 25th of July 1944 the crew of this aircraft were undertaking a cross country training flight and flying at a height of between 20 and 25 thousand feet over Yorkshire. Without warning the starboard undercarriage door suddenly opened, broke off and struck the starboard tail plane of the aircraft. The pilot was able to escape from the aircraft as it broke up and deploy his parachute, the navigator sadly was not, the AM1180 crash report states he was killed as the aircraft broke up. The majority of the aircraft came down near Woodhouse Farm, Acklam to the south west of Malton, where the pilot landed is not stated but if he baled out from a a height as great as 20,000 feet this could have been some distance away. Other sources quote Westow as being another location if where part of the aircraft came to earth, again plausable given the height in which the break-up occured.

The crash investigation blamed poor maintainance of the cables which operate the undercarriage doors as being the contributing factor for the accident occuring.

The aircraft was built to contract ACFT/555 by the De Havilland Aircraft Co Ltd at Hatfield and delivered to 139 Sqdn at Wyton, (in 8 Group PPF) in December 1943. It was transferred to 627 Sqdn at Woodall Spa in April 1944 and then a few week later to 1655 MTU at Warboys. It was written off in the incident detailed above, Cat. E2/FA Burnt damage being recorded.

Pilot - WO Claude E Cook RNZAF, baled out and survived. It is believed he survived the War.

Nav - Sgt William G Ashley RAFVR, aged 21, of Small Heath, Birmingham. Buried Yardley Cemetery, Birmingham.

Sgt William Ashley (photo Mr & Mrs J R Smith).

The pilot Claude Cook escaped a further Mosquito crash on 15th August 1944, he and his navigator baled out when control was lost over Madley, Hereford. Both airmen were injured and taken to Madley's station sick quarters before being transferred to the RAF Hospital at Credenhill. Cook eventually recovered and returned to New Zealand.