Oakworth Plane Crash

The Tewitt Hall Wood Wellington Crash

On the opposite side of the road to the Grouse Inn is an inconspicuous lane leading to Tewitt Hall Wood. To those in the know the lane leads to the site of a fatal air crash that occurred in 1944. If you are fit enough for a short walk, then please visit the memorial of the 6 young Canadians who lost their lives.

While on a training mission a Wellington Bomber (BK 387) passed low over the Grouse Inn, apparently making a desperate attempt to make an emergency landing in a nearby field. The Canadian crew of the Wellington were unsuccessful and the plane crashed into the hillside at 22.40 hrs on Sunday 2nd January 1944. Sadly there were no survivors.

The 6 men who died were all in the Royal Canadian Air Force:-

Sergeant NORMAN WILLARD CRAWFORD – R/190343 Air Gunner
Warrant Officer (Class II) JAMES EDWIN DALLING – R/137946 Air Bomber
Warrant Officer (Class II) ERNEST ISRAEL GLASS – R/2285 Pilot
Warrant Officer (Class II) JACK HENFREY – R/119823 Wireless Operator/Air Gunner.
Flying Officer JAMES JUSTIN McHENRY – J/25563 Navigator
Sergeant EMERY SAVAGE – R/2129 Air Gunner.
R.I.P.

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.

John Bentham wrote:

“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.”