Many years ago , my wife and i lived in the village of OAKWORTH, and during those years we had been told of the story of a plane crashing up in yon hillside above our shop , by some of our older customers. And this last week ,i just happen to come across this photo. In our time there when i took our dog for a walk up the lane ,there was no such memorial thereat all. So i thought it may be a good thing to post this link..... Memorial at crash site of Wellington BK387, near Oakworth, Yorkshire. on Flickr - Photo Sharing! One chap who lived further up the fields ,past the site , told of stories of the young lads of the village finding bullets littered about the ground ,after the war had finished. If there is any more info that could be added, i would like to know. Tot Glass
Tot Thanks for the photos during my walking days in the early seventies we came accross several crash sites with a lot of wreckage still scattered about, now you are lucky if you can find the actual sites as collectors have been and cleared them out or like the halifax that resided on Mickle Fell removed it for a static rebuild. oldman
Tot Hard to say, it would probably have been on squadron a while if it was given to a Crew unless it was a replacement plane. I am sure one of the RAF Buffs on this site will provide further information, also a lot of crews crashed on and around the pennines owing to the height of them. Reasons a plenty can be thought of for this, incidectialy the plane would be form an airfield in the vale of York area from 6 bomber group. Oldman
I don't know if this helps much - File type - Casualty - Repatriation; Aircraft - Wellington III BK 387; Place - Broughton, Derbyshire, England; Date - 11 March 1943 Summary heading REED, Nicholas Ronald - (Sergeant); Service Number - 415181 (survived the war, discharged from RAAF in 1946) Descriptive note In addition to the file subject, the following servicemen are mentioned in this record: HOCK – (Sergeant); Service Number – 1315045 (RAF? I haven't checked for this member on the CWGC etc) EASTON, THOMAS SOMERVILLE – (Sergeant); Service Number - 409135 (POW from Lancaster May 1943 - survived the war, discharged from RAAF in October 1945) Reed's pers file is available to be read online and would indicate that the aircraft crash-landed in March 1943. He suffered a fractured pelvis and fractured spine. Derby Royal Infirmary - dangerously ill list. The crash file has not been digitised yet. I can't see on the file what squadron he was with at the time of the crash.
Picked up on this thread after a forum search for the word 'Oakworth' (It's the only hit for Oakworth). I realise that it's an old thread but I wanted to highlight that a fair bit of research has been done on the site and these men in the last few years, but we are still short of information on three of the six crew who perished that night in January 1944. Their names were (alphabetically): Norman Willard Crawford James Edwin Dalling Ernest Israel Glass Jack Henfrey James Justin McHenry Emery Savage We still need more information about the three men who's names are in bold text, so if anyone can help, we'd really appreciate it. Pictures of them might be too much to hope for, but we did managed to obtain them for the other three men. Website linky
This Wellington was an a No 82 OTU aircraft which was based at Ossington,the headquarters of the unit, north west west of Newark,Nottingshire.The OTU also operated out from Gamston, a satellite on the now A1,south of Retford at the time of the crash. Wellington BK387 aircraft took off from Ossington at 2006 on a night country flight for RAF Abington,Peterborough,Aylsham (Norfolk),Saffron Waldren (USAAF airfield) to York then base.Weather conditions were atrocious over the latter part of the course with thick low cloud and rain.Probably due to a navigation error,while descending to try and obtain a visual fix,the aircraft crashed into ground at Tewitt Hall Wood,Pickles Hill,Oakworth at 2245hrs and about 1000 feet higher than they would have expected if they had been further south. The memorial was dedicated by the Oakworth Village Society to the crew on 4 July 1993.Apparently a local resident,a Norman Fleming had approached the Oakworth Village Society to ascertain if a memorial could be erected and this proposal was accepted. The dedication service was attended by the Keighley ATC Squadron,RAF Leeming personnel,members of No 82 OTU Ossington Reunion Group and RCAF representatives together with residents from Oakworth and Ossington.Dedication was conducted by the Rev David Swales assisted by the Rev Louise Armitage and the RAF Leeming Chaplin,the Rev Leigh Spicer. On time, at the end of the ceremony,a Spitfire from the BBMF made three passes at 150 feet over the memorial as a tribute to the RCAF crew. Most of the Ossington OTU dead were buried at Ollerton Cemetery but this crew as was the norm for RCAF casuaties of the region, were buried at Stonefall CWGC Cemetery,Harrogate. I would think that the Oakworth Village Society might have furthe personal detail of the dead although there is no reference to NOK or relatives attending the ceremony. Thanks to friend of mine,Bill Taylor who served at Gamston postwar who published "The History of RAF Stations Ossington and Gamston" and included the account of the loss of this aircraft in his publication.
Hi Harry, I should have mentioned that I'm a committee member of Oakworth Village Society and the information on our village website (linked in my post above) is all that we have on the men to date, most of it has been obtained from relatives, two of whom have attended the ceremonies in recent years. They are Max Friebel (nephew of Ernest Glass) and Phil Handley (Great Nephew of Jack Henfrey) We've not had much more success than this with contacting any other relatives so far. I have a copy of Bill Taylors book which was presented to the Village Society at the time of the memorial's unveiling, it's an excellent read too.
