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The
Tewitt Lane Memorial |
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The memorial service is always held in January on the nearest Sunday to the anniversary of the crash. |
We hope to show details of all the services that have been held here, some are already online, just click on the links to view them. |
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Tewitt
Lane Memorial main page |
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All these pictures have larger versions available, just click on the picture you'd like to see and it will open up a new window with the larger version of the picture. |
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| The Oakworth, Tewitt Hall Wood Wellington. | Keighley News. Report by Oakworth correspondent Jean Binney. |
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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. |
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Some newspaper reports of previous ceremonies held |
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1993 - Crash Tribute |
Bradford Telegraph & Argus Thursday 30/12/1993 Andy Broadfoot - Ex-service notes |
| January 2 marks the 50th anniversary of a tragedy far removed from the front line when a Wellington bomber from Ossington Newark, Nottingham. crashed in Tewitt Hall Wood near Oakworth, Keighley, killing all six crew members from the Royal Canadian Air Force. A memorial stone, pictured here being read by local scout Gavin Jones, 11, was unveiled at the site last year. | |
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1998 - Oakworth & Exley Head |
Yorkshire Observer in Bradford Telegraph & Argus Monday 12/1/1998 Paul Anderson |
| Memorial: A group of 20 people attended a short memorial service on Sunday January 4 at the site on Tewitt lane, where, on January 2, 1944 six young Canadian airmen on a training flight from RAF Ossington lost their way in fog and crashed into the hillside at Tewitt Hall Wood, Tewitt Lane. Those who attended were welcomed by Mrs Janet Armstrong and thanked for being there on such a wet and cold day. The service which consisted on bible readings and prayers was led by the Rev David Swales. The two minute silence was followed by a holly wreath being laid by Mr Max Friebel who was visiting the area for the second time. He is the nephew of the pilot of the doomed aeroplane. He expressed his gratitude to Oakworth for the permanent memory to the six young men who had died so tragically on that hillside more than 50 years ago. | |
| 2000 - Service for victims of 1944 air crash | Bradford Telegraph & Argus 1/11/2000 |
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Six Canadian airmen who died when their plane
crashed at Oakworth more than half a century ago have been remembered. A service was held at the site of the crash, Tewitt Hall Wood, where a stone memorial was erected by Oakworth Village Society in 1993. The six young Royal Canadian Air Force personnel were on a training flight from Ossington, near Newark, on January 2, 1944 when their Wellington bomber came down. A memorial service is now held annually at the isolated spot. Normally it takes place on the Sunday closest to January 2, but this year it was put back a week so that Max Friebel - a nephew of dead pilot Flight Sergeant Ernest Israel Glass - could travel from America to be there. Also at the ceremony was Ben Hanley (Actually Philip Handley), from Nottingham, the great-nephew of warrant Officer Jack Henfrey who was an air gunner on the flight. The service, led by the reverend David Swales, included bible readings, prayers, a two minute silence and the laying of wreaths. Oakworth Village Society secretary Mrs Janet Armstrong said: "These airmen who lost their lives so tragically were all young men. it is impossible to imagine what their loved ones back home must have gone through. I think it is important we continue to remember them. |
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Services have of course been held each year, and we will be adding details of these as soon as we have sufficient information. |
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If you have any questions or comments, please email the site webmaster Andy Wade |
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