Colin Stokoe is the nephew of two 102 squadron members, Wilf Bell, a rear gunner who completed a tour with the New Zealand pilot Arthur Carey, and Arthur Brown a mechanic in one of the ground crews.
In 1993 Colin wrote a piece for the Pocklington Post all about this crash, and he has kindly given us permission to reprint it here, MANY thanks to you Colin.
The fateful night of 29th March 1943 was one of heavy rain, low cloud and
icing. March 29th was on a Monday, as it is this year. The target was again
Berlin. Tom Wingham who was in the crew of one of the other nine aircraft
setting off for Berlin that night takes up the story:
"We had visited Berlin two nights before and the word was that Butch
Harris wanted one more crack at it before the lighter evenings made it
too difficult. The weather forecast was appalling and unofficially
our two Met. Officers at Pocklington were backing a ’scrub‘. At the
original time of take off, I think about 7.00 pm, a postponement came
through since there was an occlusion running north to south right
through the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire bases. At the time it was
pouring with rain with cloud up to 16,000 feet. The occlusion was
moving more slowly than forecast and a further postponement was made
as the new take—off time drew near, which is why we were taking off so
late for a trip to Berlin. Having hung about the messes for nearly
three hours awaiting a decision no one was really believed that we
were going to face this weather and a great deal of incredulity
was expressed when we finally found ourselves committed..One of the
few nights I can remember when Butch Harris‘s parentage was in doubt!"
Ten aircraft finally took off from Pocklington after the two postponements.
The first took off at 9:45 pm and the last at 10:06 pm. They were to take a
northern route across the Baltic. Tom Wingham’s aircraft ’Q—Queenie' piloted
by Sgt. Hewlett took off at 9:47 pm. and from the moment they took off they
were in cloud. Sgt. Hewlett was unable to gain sufficient height and speed and
by the time they reached the Flensburg area the perspex in the windscreen and turrets was iced up. They jettisoned their bombs and turned back returning to Pocklington at 3.09 am. After landing they found that one engine was leaking oil and another glycol.
Two other aircraft had to turn back that night. The first of the early returners was Pilot Officer Barker who jettisoned his bombs at 10:32 and landed back at Pocklington at l2:ll. Their aicrafte appears to have had similar problems to that of 'Q-Queenie' in failing to gain speed.
An hour later Flight Sgt. McKinley landed back at Pocklington, having
jettisoned his bombs after the failure of his Constant Speed Unit.
The
aircraft of wing Commander Coventry (who became the Squadron Commander a fortnight later) had to land away at Hardwicke after being attacked by a
German fighter on the way back to Pocklington. The last of the five aircraft
which did make the journay to Berlin and back to base, landed in Pocklington
at 6:04 in the morning.
'G-George' took off at 9:58 pm. but one minute later it was to crash into the west Green. Exactly what happened in that minute we will never know as all seven crew members were killed instantly. Crashes such as this were so frequent that extensive enquiries were not held. However, from eye witness accounts a fairly clear picture emerges. There was certainly no shortage of ability in the crew. As we have seen, the Pilot, Bill Comrie, favourably impressed the Conversion Flight Commander. Dismissing a common cause of such crashes in the early designs of Halifax — "swing on take off" - Wally Lashbrook said, "not with a Pilot of Comrie‘s ability". The Navigator, Flying Officer Douglas Harper had been the top cadet on his navigator's course in Edmonton, Canada.
Why was it then that an aircraft with a pilot and navigator who had shown such outstanding attainments in training and had survived the flak of the Ruhr Valley earlier in the month, flying in an aircraft only a month old and which had flown to Berlin successfully two nights before should crash so soon? RAF records only state: “Attempting to avoid another aircraft, stalled and crashed soon after take-off.”
From eye witness accounts including some with expert knowledge of Halifax’s and flying control procedures we can elaborate on this. Stan Jeffrey, who happened to come from the same village as Douglas Harper, was working on 'E—Easy' at its dispersal point. He watched the aircraft circle the aerodrome and then crash.
The circling of the drome is explained by Jack Merrick who worked as an R/T Op in Flying Control, as the "aircraft setting course" when the aircraft circled round before all were airborne and could set off together. At that time the circuits of Pocklington intersected with those of Melbourne and Elvington, but this was subsequently changed. An aircraft from one of these other two airfields got under the mainplane of 'G-George’ and the other aircraft's slipstream caused it to turn over.
Tom Thackray who was serving in 10 Sqn at that time and is now the Editor of the 10 Sqn Newsletter was at Melbourne on that night said that the story at the time was that G-George "broke cloud and there was another aircraft very close which made them take rapid evasive action and the aircraft stalled or some such action occurred and they had not sufficient altitude to recover."
Jack Merrick was walking back from an evening in Pocklington with his friend, Peter Tranmere, who also worked as an R/T Op in Flying Control. They were to be on duty for the return from Berlin. As they watched the aircraft circling they saw the navigation lights of one of them turn over. His comment was "B_____ Hell! A Halifax can't do that".
The phenomenon of the lights turning over was also witnessed by New Zealander Eric ("Ned“) Kelly, the Pilot of an aircraft which had taken part in the previous night’s raid on St.Nazaire. He was walking back in the drizzle to the airfield with the Roman Catholic padre after an evening at the Oak House Cinema (now Penny Arcadia). In wartime pictures were shown early. They saw the aircraft navigation lights going overhead. Then – "with one I suddenly realised that something was very wrong. The port red light had turned to green which meant that the plane had turned right over."
The next thing that Jack Merrick and Peter Tranmere noticed was that the aircraft appeared to be heading in their direction, the navigation lights getting wider and wider and they dived into a ditch, just as the aircraft went onto the field opposite. The aircraft was, in the words of Wilf Bell, seen to "side slip" into the West Grren.
It seems that not only had Bill Comrie managed to avoid hitting the other aircraft, but had also avoided hitting the town itself. Arthur Brown saw that the aircraft was heading directly for the town and then swerved to avoid it. Arthur believes that it was the skill of the Pilot which saved the town from massive devastation.
This view is endorsed by Jack Merrick who said,
"I can confirm that the pilot Sgt Bill Comrie appeared to be making every effort to miss the town. When we saw the navigation lights turn over the aircraft was over the town side of the railway crossing and I thought he was going to hit the town. Then he appeared to be coming right on to us, so he must have managed to get partial control to
avoid the town."
The aircraft crash landed in an open field opposite Pocklington School. The explosion was heard not only all over Pocklington, but Tom Thackray remembers hearing it from as far away as Melbourne. with its load of high explosives and incendiary bombs as well as about 2000 gallons of high octane petrol in its wings G-George was soon ablaze. The fire brigade was on the scene within five minutes and fought the blaze for 32 minutes. The Road was blocked and Pocklington’s leading fireman at the time, (the late) Raymond Slaughter recalled:
"It was a very sad night. The seven were laid up dead and the
atmosphere was heavy with the smell of aircraft fuel. The inferno and
roaring noise could be seen and heard all over Pocklington and we had
to work quickly because it was`we1l after black out time and there was
the danger of attracting enemy 'p1anes."
('Pocklington Post' 29/3/90)