Whitley near Staxton Wold.
The crew of this Whitley set out from Driffield at 21.30 hours on the 3rd August 1940 for a bombing raid on the Rhenania Ossag A.G.
oil refinery
at Monheim, in the Rhur Valley. On their return on the following morning on approaching base at Driffield they found the area
covered by thick fog and were unable to locate their aerodrome, they flew on.
Sometime later the aircraft
ran low on fuel so a force-landing was carried out in a cornfield half a mile east of Staxton Wold at 06.45 hrs. The crew all escaped
unhurt and the aircrafts captain was later congratulated by the Air Officer
in Charge "for landing his aircraft and saving his crew in such difficult and dangerous
circumstances". On this raid this aircrafts operation code number was DM105. The aircraft sustained Cat M damage, and was repaired to fly again.
The aircraft was built to contract 75147/38 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd at Baginton and delivered directly to 58 Sqdn
at Linton-on-Ouse in March 1940 when the unit began converting from Whitley III's to V's. It moved to 77 Sqdn at Driffield when
the unit moved in from Kinloss on 4th May 1940. It sustained Cat M damage at Staxton Wold in the incident detailed above, and was repaired on site
and flown out back to base. It transferred to RAE Farnborough on an as yet unspecified date. The unit was transferred to AFE and
used by them up to 15th February 1942 then it was transferred to 51 Sqdn at Dishforth where it's role was to drop paratroops. 51 Sqdn
transferred to Coastal Command on 6th May 1942 and the a/c was transferred to AFEE at Sherburn-in-Elmet. From 2nd March 1944 to 16th
October 1944 the aircraft was attached to HGCU at North Luffenham. When this unit disbanded on 16th October 1944 the aircraft was
placed in MU storage and eventually struck off charge on 19th December 1945.
Pilot - F/O William A Stenhouse RAF, aged 26, of Edinburgh - ok.
2nd Pilot - P/O Robert B (Bobbie) MacGregor RAF, aged 19, of Nairobi, Kenya - ok.
Obs - Sgt Claude L G Hood RAFVR, aged 31, of Leicester - ok. Husband of Marian Eva Hood.
W/Op - Sgt John Burrow RAF, aged 20, of Blackburn, Lancs - ok.
Rear Gunner - Sgt Harold Davies RAF, aged 20, of Bridgtown, Cannock, Staffs - ok.
Claude and Marian Hood (Copyright Leicester Mercury).
Sgt Hood's flying career reads as follows. On the 30th March 1939, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve for 5 years.
He was posted to 3 Civil Air Navigation School, later to Reserve Command, then to No.5 Bombing and Gunnery (B&G) School at RAF Jurby
on the Isle of Man. He was awarded his Air Observer's Badge in May 1940 and then posted to No.10 Operational Training Unit (OTU) at RAF
Abingdon. In June 1940 he was posted to 77 Squadron at RAF Driffield in Yorkshire, then a Whitley squadron in 4 Group, Bomber Command.
My thanks to Mr Mark Hood for much of the information above. He has P/O MacGregors logbook in his possesion.
I have yet to locate and visit the site, thought to be half a mile east of Staxton Wold.
The first three airmen listed above (along with the two others) were killed just days later on 15th August 1940 when Whitley P5044 struck
barrage balloon cables in
Hampshire when the aircraft was making for its 77 Sqdn base at Driffield after ops to Bordeaux.