Whitley near Shipton by Beninbrough.

Details on this aircraft incident are a little unsure as yet. The Whitley was returning from ops on either the 7th/8th Oct or 8th/9th oct 1940. If it was former then it could have been Gelsenkirchen or Berlin, if it was latter then it may have been Hanau. The date of the 8th is correct, the confusion is which part of the day, early morning or late at night. In any case what is known is that the aircraft ran low on fuel and the crew became lost, the pilot force landed the aircraft at Shipton-by-Beninbrough. The crew were unhurt and the aircraft was removed and returned to service.

The aircraft was built to contract 75147/38 by Armstrong Whitworth at Baginton and delivered directly to 51 Sqdn at Dishforth in May 1940. It suffered 'flak' damage on 9th July 1940 but was repaired at base and returned to service, similarly it was 'flak' damaged on 12th September 1940 and again repaired at base. It was again damaged in the incident detailed above, but this may have been a wheels down landing at Shipton. Again it was repaired on site only to be lost when it was abandoned on return from Bremen on 12th February 1941.

Crew - unknown, ok.