The Midlands museum has helped a fellow organisation move some poignant exhibits to an appropriate new home
Following the recent donation of a Merlin engine by Fenland Aviation Museum (FAM) to Northamptonshire’s Sywell Aviation Museum, the latter agreed to help repatriate some other items from the FAM collection to a fitting home - Yorkshire Air Museum.
Among the items on the move to Elvington are relics from Handley Page Halifax DT581 of 51 Squadron which crashed at Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire on January 21/22, 1943, with the loss of two crew. Based at Snaith at the time, the Halifax was a former 77 Squadron machine formerly at Elvington. The remains included a bomb-bay boor - although an English Electric-built example, the door had Handley Page makers stamps, meaning that sometime in the mere 47 hours it flew it’s likely they were replaced due to damage. Also included was a Gouge wing flap guide in very good condition. Detective work by YAM has revealed the latter in fact came not from a Halifax but an unknown Short Stirling. The Stirling Project has been contacted with a view to passing it on to them in due course.
The most poignant item being moved relates to both Elvington and 77 Squadron. On the evening of September 21/22, 1943, Sgt Claud Eric Crisp took off from Elvington as the rear gunner in Halifax JB850 on a sortie to Hanover. Either hit by flak or shot down by a night-fighter, the aircraft crashed around seven miles west of Bremen at Delmenhorst, Wildenhausen. All the crew were killed. 20-year-old Eric’s logbook somehow found its way to FAM many years ago – it has now been returned to his home base nearly 80 years after Eric took off from there for the last time.
The item was handed over to YAM’s Graham Buckle by Edward and Imogen Smith whose grandparents live in Elvington and whose great-grandfather flew as a rear gunner with 617 Squadron. The logbook was briefly placed in the rear turret of YAM’s Halifax for the first time since 1943 as a mark of respect. WITH THANKS TO BEN BROWN
