A Lancaster bomber parked on Wombleton Airfield during War with the bomb dump wood in the background. Photo borrowed from the Kirkbymoorside Town website.

The crash of this Halifax happened just after take off at 18.20hrs on Wednesday the 17th December 1944. The crew were to have carried out a night training "Bullseye" exercise. The plane failed to gain enough height and hit telegraph wires to the south of Nunnington Church and the aircraft came to ground shortly after at 18.23hrs. The pilot reported the aircraft had lost power on take off and that control had been lost. It was found that the aircrafts under-carriage had not been raised prior to the crash. The aircraft was totally wrecked although two engines may have been salvaged with Cat B damage. Two airmen sustained injuries classed as serious, the other five on board escaped without injury, the full crew list is not yet known, although two names are listed below.

I would like to thank Mr John Stanton for contacting me in November 2008, his father LAC A.G. Stanton RAFVR (597616) was serving at Wombleton when this incident occured. He kindly informs me that his father and other RAF personnel from Wombleton assisted in the rescue of the crew following the incident and clearing the site.

The crash investigation found that the pilot had not locked the throttles in place and the reason for power being lost was because they had slipped back on take off reducing power. The flaps were also thought to have been raised just after take off, possibly by mistaking that lever for that of the under-carriage lever, given the wheels were still down when the crash occured this seems likely. Blame was put on the pilot and flight engineer for this and their log books were endorsed, thankfully the incident was not fatal. The aircraft had been in service with 434 Squadron before it was given to 1666 HCU, its 434 Squadron code was WL-K.

Pilot - F/O J A Crane RCAF, of ? Ok. He had a total of 218 flying to his name but with only 17 hours of these being on the Halifax type.

Nav - F/O A L Fieldhouse RCAF, of ? Injured.

Rest of crew - unknown.

The aircraft crashed into this field at the top of Caulkley's Bank. Small fragments of the aircraft were located by Ken Reast and Dick Barton in 2006.