|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
memorial stone
|
The seat
and memorial stone
|
The
picture of Jack Henfrey
|
|
|
|
|
|
View
looking south towards the memorial (The crash site was on the top of the
hill in the background)
|
Looking
down on the pond from above and behind the memorial
|
View
looking north towards the memorial
|
|
Stonefall Cemetery
|
|
The remains of the men are
buried at Stonefall cemetery in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and are in the
Commonwealth War Graves section (see below for details on individual
graves). The text below each grave picture is from their individual
Commonwealth War Graves Commission records.
|
|
|
|
|
The Cross of Remembrance
|
The graves of the men, in
line together
|
|
We have individual memorial pages for
each of these men, click on a name to view their page
NORMAN WILLARD
CRAWFORD
JAMES EDWIN
DALLING
ERNEST ISRAEL
GLASS
JACK
HENFREY
JAMES JUSTIN
McHENRY
EMERY
SAVAGE
|
|
The crash site
|
|
There are several signs of
damage to trees, and a line of sight can be made on the path of the
Wellington as it came in to crash landing on the hill.
The following information is from personal accounts and recently taken
pictures of the damage to the trees
|
|
|
|
|
|
View
looking from the Grouse Inn towards the woods. Even today a clear gap can
be seen in the trees
|
View looking from the woods
to the rebuilt wall, and down towards the Grouse Inn
|
View
from the wall to where the fuselage finally stopped in the distance
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tree
damage
|
Tree
damage
|
Tree
damage
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tree
damage
|
Tree
damage
|
Tree
damage
|
|
|
|
|
|
A
panoramic view of the final resting place of the fuselage, looking down to
the memorial on the bridleway, and right to where the Wellington crashed
through the wall
|
|
|
|
|
|
Personal accounts of the fateful day, January 2nd
1944.
|
|
A Wellington bomber similar to the one
which crashed
|
|
THE OAKWORTH, TEWITT HALL WOOD
WELLINGTON.
Report by Keighley News, Oakworth correspondent Jean Binney.
On the night of January 2nd,
1944, the main force of bomber command was once again out in strength;
that night, 383 Aircraft were on their way to the big city, Berlin. 27
Lancasters were not to return to there bases in England, most were lost in
the Berlin area, some seven and half percent of the attacking bombers
missing. Eighty two houses were destroyed and thirty six people were
killed, Just another night for the crews of bomber command. The
Operational Training Unit, home of the O.T.U. was based eight miles north
west of Newark. This was at Ossington, and it was bases like these, flying
the Vickers Wellington, that all operational crew passed through on
their way to squadron service.
At 20.00 hours, Wellington BK387 lifted off from the Ossington runway
on what should have been just another training flight of four hours
duration. Many local people around Oakworth will tell stories of what they
saw and heard on that fateful night when the pilot, Flight Sergeant
Ernest Glass, brought the aircraft down through low cloud and subsequently
crashed into the hillside at Tewitt Hall wood. Six young lives were lost
in a instant. The crew of BK387 were all from Canada. If they had
completed their training they would have joined one of the 16 Canadian
Bomber Squadrons in Yorkshire. By the time the war ended, these squadrons
had flown some 40,822 sorties, they had lost 814 Aircraft and more than
3,500 Aircrew were killed or missing. The total Bomber command losses were
a staggering 55,000 men.The remains of the aircraft were cleared away and
little remains today at the site of the crash except for the burnt and
broken trees which tell their own story. The crew were all buried at
Stonefall Cemetery, Harrogate, near Leeds, England along with many of
their fellow countrymen, all of whom paid the supreme sacrifice. All are
buried on section C, row H, graves 11 to 16.
|
|
In the autumn of
1943, when I was eight years old, my Father, a tenant farmer moved from a
small farm to Tewitt Hall Farm.
The house was large
and that Christmas was full of people, apart from work people who lived
with us we had cousins staying for the holidays.
On the night of Jan
1944 after we children had gone to bed there was a huge crash followed by
a explosions, my Father went to investigate and found that a Wellington
bomber had crashed into the quarry about half a mile from the farm. A few
neighbours were there, but there was nothing they could do for the crew.
All but one were dead and the other died soon after. (Which one we don't
know)
Early the next
morning guards were posted and everyone was kept away. A detachment from
Glasgow was billeted in our coach house until the wreckage had been
cleared away. My cousin and I managed to sneak past the guard but were
soon spotted and sent packing.
When we went to look
later we could see that the plane had approached from the south west
leaving a wing in the next field, the Wellington bomber had flattened
about 12 yards of the wall, and chopped off the trees as it crashed into
the quarry tip.
For years afterwards
bullets and pieces of fuselage could be found at the site of the
crash.
Peter
Sharp.
June
2002.
|
|
My name is Maureen Wilson and
at the time of the crash I was 10 years old and lived at 47 North St ,
Haworth with my parents, my father James was a Air raid warden, I remember
that on the night of the crash we were awakened by a Mr Dent who lived
next door at No. 49, he was quite an old gentleman of about 80 years
, he probably awoke my father just because he was a air raid warden, I
remember him saying that he thought it was a large house on fire between
Oakworth and Oldfield. My recollection of the fire was that he could not
see it from our bedroom window, [at that time in 1944 there were no flats
or houses built on the Baptist Chapel field to obscure our view,] It
looked as if it was a large house on fire from top to bottom with flames
reaching up into the sky, the day after we were told it was a plane crash
not a house fire. We were not allowed to go and see the site of the crash
for nearly a week, by which time the authorities had removed the remains
of the aircraft except for pieces of Perspex from the planes windows, most
of the school children from the surrounding districts went to see the
crash site, and Perspex pieces were made into wings, small hearts and
other little shapes by the boys for the girls to wear as souvenirs. I did
not keep any of these objects, nor do I know of anyone who has done so.
Maureen Wilson
|
|
I am just writing a few words on the airplane crash in the woodland of
Tewitt Hall farm in Oakworth. All can remember of that night was of this
aircraft getting lower and lower in the sky, shortly after it tried to
land in a field of 20 acres opposite the grouse Inn public house, this pub
had a outside toilet of course, the landlord left the door open as he did
his business as all the customers had all gone home. he told me the day
after that he sat there frightened out of his skin as he could see the
plane heading straight for his loo. Luckily for him the plane managed to
get over the top, then landed in the field behind before going through a
wall and into the plantation of trees, It actually touched down half way
across the field, bumped twice before going through the wall. All the crew
was killed immediately, no one would suffer, thank the lord. I went
and visited the site the next day, was not a pleasant sight, the plane had
broken into three or four different parts, engines here and there,
fuselage in a different place, not a pretty sight, police fire engines and
aircraft personal were all there doing whatever was required of them,
later that week I visited the site again looking for souvenirs but the
only thing I found was a lump of Perspex which I took to work and
made into about 3 rings, also a spent bullet which was made into a
cigarette lighter which my father used to use for years. Trees all around
were covered in holes which had been made by bullets exploding, sorry I
can't remember much as I was only about fourteen then and as time goes by
you forget don't you.
P.S. I only lived then one field away from the place where the plane came
down.
John Bentham
|
|
I
have just visited the memorial and site of the crash
today. It is 58 years since the crash and no trace remains, save the
memorial stone as a reminder. it was a beautiful, but cold and frosty day with a lovely
view over the snow covered valley towards Haworth, just as I was leaving a
thick fog came in across the hill and obscured the view. Quite poignant to
say the least.
Andy Wade.
2nd January 2002
|
|
Thanks to the following persons for some of the information supplied
in the production of this web page:
Crash information supplied by Greg Kopchuk - of the Society of
Bomber Command Historians
Personal accounts supplied by Peter Sharp, Maureen Wilson and John
Bentham.
Report by Keighley News reporter Jean Binney.
|
|
If you have any
questions or comments, please email the site webmaster Andy
Wade
|
.
