Date:	Monday 7 February 1944
Time:	10:15
Type:	Handley Page Halifax Mk V
Owner/operator:	1663 HCU RAF
Registration:	DK192
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 7
Other fatalities:	1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Garrowby Hill, Bishop Wilton Wold, 5 miles N of Pocklington, Yorkshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Rufforth, North Yorkshire
Destination airport:

Narrative:
On 7th February 1944 the crew of this Halifax DK192 ("OO-N") took off for a day time training flight. At 10:15 hrs and whilst flying in low cloud the aircraft flew into the top of Garrowby Hill, Bishop Wilton Wold, 5 miles north of Pocklington, North Yorkshire, near Painsthorpe Farm, crossed a road and caught fire.

The first people on the scene where Mr Jim Sissons of Bishop WIlton, WLA Miss Ruth Tunley and Mr Ted Cook both of Painsthorpe Farm, quick to respond to the accident were the Bishop Wilton fire brigade, Mr Bill Loft and Mr Harris Fisher.

Sadly the crew died as a result of the crash. A milk lorry happened to be travelling up the road at the time and the aircraft struck this lorry, the driver of which was also killed. One of the crew was able to escape from the burning aircraft and ran to rescuers for help, he was taken to York hospital but sadly died soon after. A member of this aircraft's regular crew was in hospital at the time and had lost all of his crew, he would later complete his training and be posted to an operational squadron.

It was through the efforts of this man, Mr Alun Emlyn-Jones; the crew's regular bomb aimer and through others that a memorial stone was erected at the crash site and unveiled on 8th May 1996.
Crew of Halifax DK192...
Instructor Pilot - F/Lt Alfred John Shirley Hodson DFC (130663) RAFVR - killed
u/t Pilot - F/Sgt Stanley Bright (1042582) RAFVR - killed
Flt Eng - Sgt John Frederick Nelson (1796160) RAFVR - killed
Navigator - F/O John Kingsley Meyler (151321) RAFVR - killed
WOp / AG - Sgt Kenneth Smith (1577088) RAFVR - killed
Air Gunner - Sgt Peter Gordon McDonald (1822055) RAFVR - killed
Air Gunner - Sgt Sidney James Booker (1866190) RAFVR - killed

Plus one civilian casualty...
Lorry Driver - Mr Arthur Wood Kirkby of 3 Carlton Street, Hessle Road, Hull. He worked for the London and North Eastern Railway and was a member of the Home Guard. His burial location is not yet known.

1. http://51squadron.com/PoemsStories/Story2.pdf
2. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/showthread.php?12738-GARROWBY-HILL-Halifax-%28DK192%29-Crash-Memorial]
3. http://www.aircrewremembered.com/raf-legacy-pages-redirect.html
4. http://yorkstories.co.uk/yorkshire-memorials/lost-crews-ww2-garrowby-aldborough/
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop_Wilton_Wold
6. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?15735-440207-Unaccounted-Airmen-7-2-1944
7. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/yorkshire/dk192.html]

"1663 HCU" by Flying Officer W. Bellamy, Royal Air Force official photographer - This is photograph CH 11529 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums. . Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
08-Jan-2015 03:22	Dr. John Smith	Added
02-Nov-2018 18:45	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Location, Operator]
10-Nov-2023 18:25	Nepa	Updated [Time, Location, Departure airport, Narrative, Operator]