"The Fallen" - Remembered
The Bomber Crash at Holtby. In 1942, during the Second World War, the English Electric Company was building aircraft at Samlesbury in Lancashire for the RAF. A Halifax Mk2 bomber designated W.1228 MP-A was completed and awaiting collection on 21st July 1942.
Initially allocated to 78 Squadron, the bomber was in fact taken on by 76 Squadron on 24th July, and was based at RAF Middleton St George near Darlington in County Durham.
Just before 8pm on 8th September, this bomber took off from base on an operational flight heading for Germany and the target at Frankfurt. About twenty minutes later, while flying just east of York at 8,000 feet, a fire broke out in the bomb bay. This led to an explosion of the bomb load.
Wreckage from the aircraft fell around the village of Holtby, and all seven crew members were killed. They were: John Nicholson, Alfred Thompson, Arnold Robson, John Murray, Laurence Harvey, Ronald Stevens, and Cecil Rundle. Further details of these airmen will appear in another issue of the Grapevine.
The bodies of the airmen were taken to RAF Pocklington, and an urgent investigation was begun. (There had been a similar incident just two days previously with a Wellington bomber flying over Norfolk.)
It had been normal for such aircraft to carry ‘photo-flashes’ in their bomb bays. When dropped, these would ignite and illuminate the target, enabling photographs of the effect and relative accuracy of the bombing. As with flares fired from Very pistols, or rocket flares fired at sea, these exploded into fireballs of intense heat which produced lingering brilliant light.
The investigation found it likely that a ‘photo-flash’ in the bomb bay of Halifax W.1228 had somehow ignited, damaging or severing fuel lines running along the fuselage floor just above and setting fire to the fuel. The blaze would have triggered the explosion of the bomb load, which blew apart the aircraft. As a result, it was recommended that the practice of carrying the photo-flashes in the bomb bays of aircraft be discontinued.
Father Val Hollands (faithirV@googlemail.com / 01904 489 283)