Date:	Sunday 16 November 1941
Time:	02:00
Type:	Handley Page Hampden Mk I
Owner/operator:	50 Sqn RAF
Registration:	P1152
MSN:	VN-X
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 4
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Westerdale Moor, near Stoney Ridge, Baysdale, North Yorkshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Swinderby, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:	RAF Swinderby

Narrative:
This Hampden came down on 16th November 1941 on Westerdale Moor while it's crew were returning early from a mine laying operation flight to the Frisian Islands (code named as "Three Hampdens ‘Gardening’ in the ‘Nectarine’ area", according to the ORB) due to icing conditions effecting the flying surfaces and the control of the aircraft. It was one of five Hampdens tasked and had taken off from RAF Swinderby at 20.32 hours; on the return this aircraft drifted off course and probably crossed the English coastline much further north than planned. It flew into a hilltop at 02.00 hours less than a minute after the crew had began a successful descent to locate their position.

There is a report that the navigator had literally just worked out their position moments before the crash but had had no time to warn the pilot about the high ground they were flying towards. The area they may have flown over for their position to have been calculated could have been the Tees Estuary or the coastline near Whitby.

The location where the aircraft came down is not 100% certain but it is thought to have been on Westerdale Moor and more precisely Stoney Ridge. One of the crew was killed in the crash and three suffered injuries. Of the injured, two were able to get their own way off the moor and seek help. They arrived at Hawthorn House some time later and were made comfortable and awaited rescue. The remains of the aircraft were probably taken down to the remains of the Rosedale railway and carted away via Blakey or Ingleby Incline

As stated above the location of where the aircraft crash remains open. William Chorley quotes the location, in his Bomber Command Losses book, as on "Guisborough Moor, four miles south-east of Middlesbrough"; this position and distance cannot be correct as this would put it many miles off the Moorland area. The RAF's AM1180 Crash Card simply states "Guisborough" as the crash location which is again not entirely correct. More modern books quote "Westerdale Moor" as the crash location, where as the wireless operator's death certificate states it occured "west of Stoney Ridge, Baysdale Moor". The "Westerdale" Moor location is probably correct but being the "Moor above Westerdale" rather than the actual location on the map which is some way distant.

I have searched a wide area of moorland in search of this crash site and to date have found nothing in the Stoney Ridge area. One puzzling addition is that I managed to speak to a local farmer who's father saw the crashed aircraft from outside his farmhouse in Baysdale.

Had the Hampden crashed on Stoney Ridge then there is pretty much no chance of him spotting it as it is some three miles off. Although I am not keen on speculating on such things there is a chance that the plane came down a lot closer to Baysdale and the term "Stoney Ridge" may have been incorrectly used.

Crew
Pilot - Sgt William John Young RAFVR (778478), aged 22, of Fort Jameson, Northern Rhodesia. Injured.
Navigator - Sgt Donald McGregor Symes RAFVR (1175877), aged 19, of Newton Abbott, Devon. Injured.
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner - Sgt Alexander Russell Bernard RAFVR (1004002), aged 21, of Kelty, Scotland. Injured.
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner - Sgt Ronald St.Clair Neale RAFVR (1375564), aged 27, of Lambeth, London. Buried Newark Cemetery, Nottinghamshire.

Hampden P1152 was built to contract 773239/38 by Handley Page Ltd at Radlett and was delivered to the RAF in July 1939. After acceptance it was issued to 44 Squadron at Waddington. It was later transferred to 50 Squadron at Swinderby sometime after July 1941 and sustained Cat.E2/FB damage in the incident on 16th November 1941.

1. Air-Britain: Royal Air Force Aircraft P1000-R9999
2. W.R. Cholrey: Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War 1941 Page 182.
3. http://www.no-50-and-no-61-squadrons-association.co.uk/app/download/5802508903/50+SQUADRON+ORB+1939+1943+Revision+1.pdf
4. http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/planes/41/p1152.html
5. https://www.backtonormandy.org/the-history/air-force-operations/airplanes-allies-and-axis-lost/hampden/25687-P11521941-11-16.html
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westerdale
7. 50 Squadron RAF ORB (Air Ministry Form 540) http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2503123

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

26 August 1940

P2070

50 Sqn RAF

0

Lautersheim, Donnersbergkreis district, Rhineland-Palatinate

min

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
03-Jul-2013 08:49	JINX	Added
15-May-2016 18:12	Red Dragon	Updated [Time, Cn, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
06-Aug-2018 00:24	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
12-Nov-2018 19:17	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Operator]